A close political ally of Peter Obi, Ibrahim Abdulkarim, has explained why the Labour Party’s influence and Obi’s popularity have not been translating into electoral victories for candidates he supports.
Speaking on Daily Politics on Trust TV on Thursday, August 21, 2025, Abdulkarim said Obi’s brand of politics seeks to dismantle entrenched practices in Nigeria’s political system, including godfatherism, money politics, and thuggery.
“Peter Obi will never— that’s why he left the PDP— he will never pay money for people to vote for him. He said he can’t get the rationale,” Abdulkarim stated.
Citing examples from recent off-cycle elections, he alleged that votes were openly traded in Edo State for as much as ₦28,000 per ballot. He also recalled a polling unit in Kaduna where only five people initially turned up to vote, until cash inducements ranging from ₦5,000 to ₦10,000 per voter triggered a surge in participation.
“How will you use this as a yardstick to say a candidate is not popular?” he asked, insisting that Obi’s candidates enjoy grassroots support but are consistently undermined by systemic corruption.
He further condemned the role of thuggery in elections, referencing viral videos from Kano that showed armed groups operating freely while security operatives looked on.
According to Abdulkarim, the manipulation of poverty is central to these practices. “People that are not eating, people that cannot even have where to sleep—do you think it’s not deliberate?” he queried, arguing that Nigeria’s worsening poverty levels are being exploited by politicians to entrench vote-buying.
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