Progressive Obedients Party holds national convention in Abuja

By Moses Okorie

Progressive Obedients Party, POP, political association, which has written to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, for registration as one of the Nigeria’s political parties has held its maiden national convention in Abuja and inaugurated members of its national executive committee as well as that of the various states represented.

Speaking to our Correspondent at venue of the convention on Saturday, the pro tem chairman of the POP, Ubong Engineer Kingsley Udoh Akpan, said most members of the party were supporters of Peter Obi in the 2023 general elections who came into the Labour Party, but were not accommodated and so have to form another political party that would represent their ideology.

According to him, “POP is borne out of inconsistency in governance and intra-party affairs. I have been a member of the PDP, I have been a member of the APC. I even contested for House of Reps in 2019 under APC. I have been a member of the Labour Party. We all joined Peter Obi from the PDP to the Labour Party, but we understand that the Labour Party was not want to embrace and give the opportunity for great minds like us to contribute our own quota in nation building.

“So, we decided as obedient and progressive Obidents to carve out a name for ourselves and a party that would meet up with our aspiration and ideology. That is why we came out with the name, Progressive Obedients Party. The word Obedients is an English word not OBI, but OBE; Obedients. It is not built around anybody; not individual owns it”.

He reviewed that the have approached INEC by the virtue their application for official registration dated December 8, 2023 and INEC responded to them on January 31, and so they are anticipating the registration any time soon.

He said they have complied with most of the requirements as requested by the electoral umpire and “Looking at the guidelines INEC presented; we are taking it step-by-step, ensuring that we have a draft constitution which is gotten, the code of conducts, the manifesto and structures in 24 states of the federation, and as you can see today, we have 35 states structured already for the party.

“Today, we elected the state executive committee members and the national executive committee members who will see to the affairs of membership drive pending when we conclude the registration with INEC. A one hundred million Naira would be made to INEC and other documentations that we need to do. So, we are actually on the process.

On the correlation between the party and candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 general elections, the pro tem chairman said, Peter Obi is a politician and this is a political party. It has no correlation with Peter Obi, but he is like every other Nigerian who sees this as a viable platform to ride on and achieve his ambition, you are free; you come on board and use this platform.

“The most important thing is that our ideology here, we don’t sell out our own; all those betrayal of trust and confidence, after obtaining nomination forms, you find out that before your name would be acknowledged in INEC portal, kickback has to be given behind closed door and all of that. If you don’t do that, your name would not see the light of the day. It will not happen in Progressive Obedients Party. We respect every human being.

The pro tem chairman of POP, Ubong Engineer Kingsley Udoh Akpan is fellow Nigerian Institute of Metrological Mining Materials Engineer, a member of Nigerian Society of Engineers, and a member of Nigerian Metrological Society.

Those inaugurated as members of the national working committee were Ubong Engineer Kingsley Udoh Akpan, Chief Aju Uzodinma, Mrs. Joy Aruru, Pastor Yusuf Babatunde Gift, Abdulrahman Abdullahi, Hon Stephen Jame Agha, Hon Agbaeze Ogbonnaya, Hon Meg Ekaete Abbagu, Comrade Daniel Ejembi, Barrister Ajibola Akor Ebi, Hon Kalu Idika, Augustine Isike and Ereni Oldje Oke.