Eric Patrick
Veteran actor turned politician and former spokesperson for the Labour Party Presidential Marketing campaign Council, Kenneth Okonkwo, has publicly accused former presidential candidate Peter Obi of betrayal, citing divisions throughout the get together’s management.
In a viral interview with Symfoni that started circulating on Saturday, Okonkwo, who left the Labour Party in February 2025, claimed that Obi ignored his recommendation and selected to again the embattled faction led by Julius Abure.
Okonkwo said that he had cautioned Obi in opposition to supporting Abure’s management, warning that it might deepen inside conflicts. Nevertheless, he alleged that Obi sided with the group after being misled by get together officers who insisted that the Impartial Nationwide Electoral Fee (INEC) had formally recognised them.
He stated, “Any politician that is aware of what he’s doing can’t be betrayed by one other. If there’s anyone that betrayed the opposite, I can say emphatically that Peter Obi betrayed me.
“The Julius Abure-led LP members lied to Obi that the Impartial Nationwide Electoral Fee had accepted them and Obi surreptitiously went again to them however I advised him: ‘Sir, you may have made a public assertion on integrity and even when INEC has accepted them, that isn’t a criterion so that you can return and begin coping with them as a result of they’ve proven that they aren’t democratic.
“When you return to them, they may destroy your political profession and every part you may have stated about integrity will die.’”
He stated that regardless of privately urging Obi to not align with a bunch he described as “undemocratic” and “brokers of the federal government,” Okonkwo stated Obi went forward to publicly endorse them.
“I advised Obi that these folks had change into brokers within the fingers of the federal government to destabilise him.
“What they did was completely unlawful and unconstitutional, I advised him that if he went again to them, I wouldn’t be part of him in doing so.
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“Thereafter, I known as all of the those that had been within the internal circle and advised them the identical factor about what Obi was making an attempt to do.
“I advised them he needed to return with the Abure folks and if he did, I wouldn’t return with him as a result of I don’t swallow again my phrases.
“And after saying all these issues, inside like 72 hours, Obi went again to Abure’s workplace to publicly endorse them and whereas he was there speaking to them, one of many leaders in that govt despatched me the video to mock me that the particular person I used to be combating for in opposition to them has come to their workplace to endorse them.
“It was when INEC dissociated itself from Abure that Obi got here out to start out performing impartial however I advised him he couldn’t be impartial and one thing needed to be accomplished,” he added.
The Labour Party has been caught in a long-running management disaster, with rival factions battling for management of its nationwide management.
The faction led by Abure has come below fireplace for alleged {financial} mismanagement and undemocratic practices—claims that critics argue undermine the get together’s repute as a drive for reform.
Citing these points, Okonkwo, a distinguished supporter of Obi’s political imaginative and prescient, resigned from the get together earlier this 12 months, pointing to the inner irregularities as the rationale for his departure.
