…says ‘APGA is in the past’
A governorship aspirant under the All Progressives Congress, (APC), in Anambra State, Valentine Ozigbo, has described the Labour Party, (LP) as a “failing enterprise,” warning that the party is heading for a wave of mass defections.
Ozigbo, who was formerly a governorship aspirant in the Labour Party before defecting to the APC in February 2025, made the statement during an appearance on national television.
He criticised the LP’s leadership for the ongoing internal crisis, expressing disappointment over how the party has evolved since the 2023 general elections.
Ozigbo, a former close ally of LP’s 2023 presidential candidate Peter Obi, said Obi has failed to manage the party’s leadership dispute, which he believes has deepened the division within the party.
“I’m totally disenchanted with what the party has become. It is not what people think it is,” he said, stressing that his relationship with Obi remains civil despite their political differences.
When pressed further on what went wrong, Ozigbo said he expected Obi to take decisive steps to resolve the LP’s leadership and legal crises, but he failed to do so, prompting his decision to exit the party.
“I had a problem with Labour Party, and by extension, I would expect Peter Obi to take certain preemptive steps to deal with some of these issues in Labour Party, which, for maybe, he has his reasons not to have handled the way I would have expected, but I don’t want to be part of what I can consider now a failing enterprise. I had to move on,” he said.
Ozigbo further denied leaving the LP because Obi did not protect his interests, adding that his defection to the APC was triggered by the party’s lack of proper leadership.
“I would expect the Labour Party to be better handled, better led, than what I’m seeing,” he stated.
Despite his disappointment with how Obi handled the LP crisis, Ozigbo maintained he had a civilised relationship with him, adding that both of them were now focused on their political goals.
He said, “Peter Obi is in the Labour Party, having his competition around the coalition, talking about 2027. Valentine Ozigbo is in the APC talking about 2025. We have different objectives right now, and that’s why I had to take my own path.”
He said: “I joined APC from the Labour Party and I will make my case very clear, I didn’t just leave the Labour Party, I made analogies of what I think about these parties in Nigeria.
“You have to do your checks and make certain decisions for posterity, for the future.
“Labour Party is not exactly what people think they are, it’s almost in its dying days, and over time, people are going to see this – how people are leaving the party.
“There is hardly any elected member of the party that I have spoken to who is intending to run for his election under the same platform, so the Labour party for me is in the past.
“I took a decision to go into APC not because I’m here to justify all the actions of APC, I’m here rather as a catalyst for change, if this is the only option we have today; then some good people need to go in there and become an agent of change, I want to see myself as one of those agents and that’s why I moved.
“When I moved, it became the trending topic of the time, even up till now. For anybody to say I went into APC without supporters is very laughable. Nicholas moved into APC a month before me, and nobody said anything, but since I joined, I’m already adding value to APC.
“My moving into APC changed the trajectory. There are allegations that maybe Mr. President wants Soludo to come back because he sees him as an opponent of Peter Obi.
“Even if that is correct, it’s an inferior proposition. Soludo must have gone to whoever to say APC is weak and his problem is Labour. So support me in APGA so that I will come back because you don’t want Labour to win Anambra State.
“APC is weak, Labour is strong, by me leaving Labour to join APC, it is strong today – and this is why I’m fighting this battle – if you go to the real people in APC, they will understand the battle that I’m fighting, they won’t want this type of deal where Soludo is APGA in the afternoon and APC at night.
“So he creates a confusion where you are not strengthening the party or helping anybody, so if you want to be a man, be a man and if you want to be a woman, be a woman. If Soludo wants to be APGA, be APGA – APGA is in the past.”
