Baba-Ahmed made the announcement on Tuesday during an appearance on Channels Television’s political programme, Politics Today, citing internal disagreements and a departure from the party’s founding ideals as reasons for his exit.
He said, “I am leaving the Labour Party tomorrow. There is more to it. When there was real peace in the Labour Party, was when they posted back. They redeployed someone with a specific purpose, and because of the antecedent of the individual to make life difficult, particularly for me. What the Labour Party stood for then is no longer what it is today.”
The former vice-presidential candidate said his defection would take effect at midnight, and confirmed the PRP as his next political destination.
“I am leaving the Labour Party [at] midnight, and I am joining PRP. PRP is the new destination. PRP is the one with a history. It’s about 75 years old,” he stated.
The PRP was founded in 1978 by the late Aminu Kano and is regarded as one of Nigeria’s oldest political movements, with a long-standing reputation for progressive ideology.
He said whoever is going to defeat President Bola Tinubu in the forthcoming presidential election must be a man of impeccable character.
“With the kind of wealth Nigeria has, why were two brigadier generals killed? Whoever is going to defeat Tinubu must be somebody impeccable. And Nigeria has people with clean characters. And the crime we have committed against ourselves is those people staying away,” he said.