The Labour Party standard bearer in the 2023 presidential election, Peter Obi, is set to announce his running mate this week, according to Doyin Okupe, the place holder for the party’s running mate.

Okupe while featuring on Channels TV Politics Today, on Tuesday said Obi is in talks with different persons from the north, stressing that Senator Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed is one of them.

Baba-Ahmed is a Nigerian economist and politician and was a Senator of the Federal Republic. He is the founder of Baze University Abuja and Baba-Ahmed University Kano (Awaiting License). He is young, intellectually inclined and experienced in public and private administration.

Okupe listed the criteria they are looking for in Obi’s running mate to include: young age, intellectualism, integrity and one appealing to both the youths and the old.

He dismissed insinuation that Obi was being deceived by a PDP member, saying nobody is deceiving Obi. He also dismissed the notion that the Obi-dient movement was only a social media buzz, stressing that those who think that way have been left behind.

He said the Peter Obi movement is a national wave which cuts across the various zones in the country. He projected Labour Party to win 40 to 45 percent of votes in the South west alone.

According to Okupe, a good sellable candidate from the north will give Labour Party a headstart over APC and PDP, both which he said will self destruct.