20/ 06/2024 ONN Abuja
Kenneth Okonkwo, a chieftain of the Labour Party (LP), has openly expressed his dissatisfaction with the party's recent developments.
In an interview with Symfoni on Thursday, Okonkwo, who served as the presidential campaign spokesperson for the LP in the 2023 election, described the party as "a secret society led by a group of clowns."
He criticized the party for lacking the integrity to capitalize on internal crises within other parties and hinted at the possibility of defecting if the LP continues on its current path.
“Any party that is not visibly committed to the welfare of Nigerians will most likely not see me there. I don’t rule out going back to anything because change is constant. My own Labour Party is not impressing me. Assuming they continue on this trajectory where they cannot even hold an acceptable national convention, then you’d tell me I’d be there?” Okonkwo stated.
He expressed his frustration over the party's recent convention, which he was unaware of until he saw it on social media.
“I was a spokesperson at the presidential level and I did not know that the Labour Party was having a convention. When I saw it on social media, I thought it was fake. They were rejected in Umuahia because it was a leprous convention. Those people are clowns. It is the greatest joke I have ever seen in a political party and then you want to position yourself as a party of integrity. You cannot give what you don’t have."
Okonkwo also took a direct jab at the party's leadership, saying, “Aburi and his cohorts, their tenure is over. Let Aburi and his cohorts get behind me. They are workers of iniquity. I don’t rate them. That executive is in charge of the secret society. They should be apprehended.”
The Nollywood actor turned politician left the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2022, citing the party’s adoption of a Muslim-Muslim ticket for the 2023 presidential election.
He joined the LP a month later, pledging to support Peter Obi's presidential campaign.
The Labour Party has been embroiled in a leadership crisis since Lamidi Apapa, the deputy national chairman (south), declared himself the acting national chairman last year.
The crisis deepened in 2024 when a national convention in Anambra re-elected Julius Abure as chairman, despite opposition from a party faction.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) did not monitor the convention, and the party's Board of Trustees (BoT) labeled it a charade, asserting that Abure's tenure had ended.
Comments