Dino Melaye dismisses Peter Obi's 1m man march as a congregation of hungry people paid N1,000 each

PEOPLES Democratic Party (PDP) presidential campaign spokesman Senator Dino Melaye has  rubbished the recent 1m man march for Labour Party candidate Peter Obi saying those who were on it were hungry people paid between N1,000 ($2.30) and N2,000.

Over the weekend, the Labour Party organised a mass march for its presidential candidate, former Anambra State governor Peter Obi, in Abuja. Labour Party officials have been claiming this is evidence that their man is the people's choice in next year's presidential elections ahead of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the PDP.

However, Senator Melaye, the official spokesman for the PDP Presidential Campaign Management Committee, has dismissed such talk, saying the matchers were hungry people assembled from all parts of Abuja to say they were Obi-dients. He insisted that the forthcoming presidential election is between the presidential candidate of the PDP and the others

Senator Melaye added: “Just like if you go to court they’ll say Federal Government vs Dino Melaye and others and this particular case you have Atiku Abubakar and others including the APC, Labour Party, SDP, NNPP all of them are others in this regard. I want to tell you that to assemble crowd is just to bring out money, as mobilization is very very cheap in this country.

“People are hungry. If you go to Nyanya, Mararaba people were being loaded in buses from Lugbe and every part of the country to stand and say they’re supporting so so and so. I think Peter Obi was in Osun. He spoke in Osun, and we saw the result of the Labour Party in Osun, 2,700 votes, while PDP was counting four hundred and something thousand vote, so it’s not about the commercial mobilisation of the people.

“Nigerians are hungry and if you go to Mararaba today to say you need 5,000 people with the blow of a whistle, they’ll assemble and collect their N1000 or N2000. It is not the march on the streets that will determine the votes.

“We’re talking of proper votes and Nigerians know that Atiku is speaking to the issues. We’re not on hype movements.”