Peter Obi Reportedly Rejected Over Move to Give Aisha Yesufu NDC Account Access

The move by the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 election, Peter Obi, to give Aisha Yesufu access to the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) campaign account was reportedly denied, according to a claim by an X user.

High Chief Lawrence Igbins Okoro made the allegation through a post on Monday.

The former member of the Obidient Movement, a support base of Obi, claimed that Obi approached a senior figure in the NDC and proposed that Yesufu be made a signatory to the campaign account.

According to Okoro, the proposal was rejected and Obi was allegedly warned against raising the issue again.

“Peter Obi approached the Supreme Leader and asked for Aisha to be a signatory to the NDC campaign account. The Supreme Leader almost ate him raw and warned him never to repeat it,” Okoro wrote on X.

He further claimed that Yesufu had indicated that she would not take an active role in the campaign unless she was made a signatory to the account.

“Aisha said she wouldn’t be active in the campaign if she wasn’t a signatory,” he added.

Okoro, however, did not identify the person he referred to as the “Supreme Leader” in his post and did not provide further details about the alleged disagreement.

The claim comes amid commentaries about Yesufu’s expected role in Obi’s 2027 presidential campaign and her approach to the election compared with her highly visible involvement during the 2023 election.

Yesufu recently explained that she would not be travelling extensively with Obi as she did during the previous campaign. Instead, she said she would focus more on grassroots mobilisation and ensuring that votes are protected from the polling units through the collation process.

“There are so many other things that I am doing. I am going to be doing so you might not get out as much as possible to ensure that I’m doing this,” she said.

The approach would represent a shift from the nationwide campaign tours that made Yesufu one of the prominent figures around Obi during the 2023 presidential election. Her focus now appears to be more on mobilisation at the grassroots and monitoring the electoral process.

Yesufu has also remained vocal about electoral transparency and the need for stronger safeguards in the transmission and collation of results ahead of the 2027 elections.

POLITICS NIGERIA reports that Yesufu moved with Obi to the NDC from the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and joined the party. She subsequently sought the NDC ticket to contest the Federal Capital Territory senatorial seat but failed.

Reports at the time said Yesufu encouraged her supporters to remain focused on the wider objective of the 2027 presidential election.

Her relationship with the NDC leadership has also seen moments of disagreement.

In June, Yesufu criticised NDC national leader Seriake Dickson over comments he made during a television interview following the party’s primaries. She accused Dickson of focusing excessively on himself rather than reassuring aspirants who were disappointed by the outcome and projecting confidence in the party ahead of the 2027 election.

Dickson, on his part previously disclosed that he and Obi offered Yesufu a House of Representatives ticket, which she reportedly turned down.

Meanwhile, the latest allegation concerning the NDC campaign account has not been independently verified.

Neither Obi nor Yesufu has publicly confirmed the alleged disagreement, while Okoro did not provide evidence or identify the senior NDC figure involved in the claim.