OK Movement Changes Stance on Campaign Council, Blames APC for Issues

The OK Movement has admitted that its recently rejected presidential campaign council was formed without following the right process.

Emmanuel Idakwo, spokesperson for the OK Movement, shared this on Thursday during an appearance on Sunrise Daily, a breakfast show on Channels TV.

"The issue of a campaign council that was allegedly published by some individuals claiming to be members of the OK Movement. But I can assure you that that was not done officially."

"Because even Peter Obi had no knowledge of it. And it’s not possible for any member of the OK Movement to officially do such without his knowledge. So, it was not officially done. There was a motive behind it," he said.

The OK Movement, which stands for Obi-Kwankwaso, is one of the groups supporting Peter Obi and his running mate Rabiu Kwankwaso for the 2027 presidential election.

Recall that there was tension between the leadership of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) and the OK Movement after the party rejected a campaign council revealed by the support group.

In response, the support group stood its ground, saying it does not need anyone's approval in the NDC to carry out its legitimate organizational duties.

Idakwo emphasized that the OK Movement has a good relationship with the NDC and its National Leader, Seriake Dickson.

He pointed out that statements made by supposed supporters of Obi on social media are often wrongly linked to the OK Movement.

He said that the campaign council and other statements attributed to the OK Movement were "never done by any official leadership" of the group.

"There is no official leadership of either the Obidient Movement, the Kwankwasiya, the OK Movement that has ever come up to say that they are against the NDC structure or the party leadership."

"So, anyone who says these things online claiming to be members of these groups, I can tell you they are not verified to be part of the leadership of the groups," he said.

Idakwo accused the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) of trying to undermine the NDC.

"I will tell you quite frankly that everything that is possible to be thrown at the NDC to reduce the credibility of the party or reduce the level of sensitisation that is rapidly growing with supporters is being done by the ruling party," he claimed.

He added that the APC has been causing problems for the NDC by blowing up small issues like the campaign council matter to make it look like the opposition party is divided.

"I believe that if you look at the stories on the internet, the comments from individuals, you would see that these issues are being amplified equally by supporters of the APC just to discredit our NDC to make it look like the NDC is divided," he alleged.

When contacted for comments on Thursday, APC spokesperson Felix Morka told a PREMIUM TIMES reporter to send his questions via text message.

But as of the time of this report, Morka had not responded.

There had been tension between the NDC leadership and members of the OK Movement over the formation of the campaign council for the 2027 election.

PREMIUM TIMES reported that on 17 September, the OK Movement set up a 59-member campaign council to gather support for Obi and Kwankwaso ahead of the 2027 election.

The support group said this council would work separately from the one the NDC would establish.

However, the NDC disowned the support group, stating that it would soon announce its campaign council for the 2027 election.

It warned that the actions of the support group could disrupt the party.

The support group, in turn, rejected the NDC’s warning, insisting that it does not need anyone's personal approval within the party to carry out its lawful organizational functions.

Later, the NDC allowed Obi and Kwankwaso to choose leaders for the party’s soon-to-be-announced campaign council.