ABUJA, Nigeria — A senior figure in the OK Movement has backed Peter Obi’s rejection of a parallel Presidential Campaign Council announced by a faction of the support group, deepening a dispute over who controls campaign structures for the 2027 election.
Justin Ijeh, a former national publicity official of the movement, said in an interview with Arise News that many members did not support the campaign council announced by a faction led by John Ughulu.
His comments on Friday, September 25, 2026, came after Obi, the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, publicly disowned the council and said support groups could not assume the functions of the political party.
“We fully align and stand with the position of the leader of the party and the candidate of the party on the presidential ticket on the issue,” Ijeh said.
Obi Rejects Parallel Campaign Council
The dispute began after a faction of the OK Movement announced a 59-member Presidential Campaign Council to mobilise support for Obi and his running mate, Rabiu Kwankwaso.
The NDC rejected the structure, saying it had not authorised the council and would establish its own campaign organisation.
Obi subsequently sided with the party.
“The campaign council of the OK movement was not created with my knowledge or approval,” Obi said during an appearance on Arise News. “Not at all. I state it here: it is wrong.”
He said the OK Movement, the Obidient Movement, Kwankwasiyya, and other groups supporting the ticket should complement the party rather than operate as parallel political organisations.
Former Bayelsa State Governor Seriake Dickson, a senior NDC figure, has taken a similar position.
Ijeh Says Obi Intervened in Leadership Crisis
Ijeh said the disagreement over the campaign council grew out of an earlier leadership conflict inside the OK Movement.
According to him, Obi intervened after rival leadership structures emerged and asked those involved to step aside.
He said the intervention dissolved the movement’s national executive steering structure, rather than the movement itself, and led to the appointment of an oversight committee to consider a new leadership arrangement.
Ijeh said many founding members were not consulted before the disputed campaign council was announced.
“A lot of us who were originating members of the movement were not privy to his activities, were not privy to that announcement, do not support it,” he said.
He added that he expected a formal announcement on the movement’s leadership structure in the coming days.
Rival Faction Says Council Remains Valid
The dispute remains unresolved.
A faction led by Ughulu has insisted that the campaign council remains valid and that the OK Movement is an independent political organisation entitled to determine its internal leadership and campaign structures.
In a statement reported by News Express, the faction said it did not require approval from the NDC to organise its own activities.
The NDC, however, has given Obi and Kwankwaso authority to nominate key officials for the party’s official Presidential Campaign Council.
That decision reinforced the party leadership’s position that the formal presidential campaign structure must operate through the NDC.
Ijeh said supporters aligned with Obi and Kwankwaso were continuing grassroots mobilisation despite the internal dispute.
He also said many members of the Obidient and Kwankwasiyya movements had joined the NDC ahead of the election.
The disagreement leaves competing factions of the OK Movement claiming different levels of authority, while Obi and the NDC maintain that any presidential campaign council operating in their names requires approval from the candidates and the party.
