A former spokesperson for the Labour Party (LP) presidential campaign council, Barrister Kenneth Okonkwo has resigned his membership of the party.
Okonkwo was the LP campaign spokesperson in the 2023 election.
In his resignation statement, he said the LP has been afflicted by internal and leadership crises.
The Nollywood actor and political activist said: ‘My entrance to politics is for good governance, and I will continue to work for it to ensure that Nigeria becomes a great country of incorruptible men. This aim can no longer be realised within Labour Party as presently constituted.
‘Since the party is non-existent as presently constituted, I am constrained to resign my membership of the party to all Nigerians of goodwill who supported us when we needed them most and to pledge my continued loyalty to the Nigerian people in all I will decide to do in my political future’.
He said he is open to pitching his political tent elsewhere.
‘This resignation takes effect from the 25th of February, 2025, which marks the second anniversary of the presidential election of 2023, after which I will be at liberty to join other well meaning, and like minded Nigerians in charting a great future of good governance for this great country blessed by God’, he added.
Okonkwo said that the tenure of the party’s leadership had long elapsed and the caretaker committee set up to salvage the party has been hindered by unnecessary litigation.
He criticised LP’s National Chairman, Barrister Julius Abure for allegedly prioritising personal interests over the party’s survival.
In June 2024, Okonkwo described the LP as ‘a secret society led by a group of clowns’.
In an interview on Symfoni, a news platform, Okonkwo warned that he would not rule out joining another party if the LP continues on a ‘trajectory where they cannot even hold an acceptable national convention’.
In July, Okonkwo said he no longer had confidence in the ability of LP’s candidate in the 2023 presidential election, Mr. Peter Obi to build a party that can win elections.
He said Obi has ‘proved that even if the people vote for him, he does not have what it takes to secure the mandate’.
Okonkwo left the All Progressives Congress (APC) for LP in 2022, citing the former’s adoption of a Muslim-Muslim ticket for the 2023 presidential poll.
The LP has been embroiled in a leadership crisis since its Deputy National Chairman (South), Mr. Lamidi Apapa declared himself the acting National Chairman last year.
The crisis deepened in 2024 when a national convention of the party in Anambra State saw Abure re-elected as chairman amid opposition from a faction of the party.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had said it did not monitor the party’s national convention.
The Board of Trustees of the party described the convention that re-elected Abure as a charade and added that Abure’s tenure was over.
In February 2024, the party’s National Treasurer, Oluchi Oparah accused Abure of misappropriating N3.5 billion, a claim the LP chairman denied while threatening legal action.
The allegation led to calls from party members for Abure’s removal.
In April, the FCT High Court issued an order restraining Abure from parading himself as the national chairman of the LP.
While ruling on an ex parte application, Justice Hamza Muazu also restrained the National Secretary, Farouk Ibrahim; National Organising Secretary, Clement Ojukwu; and Oparah from parading themselves as national officers of the party.
In September, Senator Nenadi Usman, who represented Kaduna South district in the seventh National Assembly, was appointed to chair a 29-member caretaker committee after Abia State Governor, Dr. Alex Otti convened a stakeholders meeting of the party in Umuahia, the state capital.
Obi and Datti Baba-Ahmed, his running mate in the 2023 vote, were among the top party members that attended the meeting.
INEC had also invalidated Abure’s leadership, saying the national convention violated the constitution and Electoral Act.
The electoral body said the party failed to meet legal requirements for holding the convention, insisting that Abure’s tenure as LP national chair expired in June 2024.
But in a judgement on 8 October, the Federal High Court, presided over by Justice Emeka Nwite, affirmed the Abure-led leadership and the March 2024 Nnewi convention that produced the party executives.
He ordered INEC to recognise Abure as the legitimate chairman of the party.
On 17 January, this year, the Court of Appeal in Abuja affirmed Abure as the LP National Chairman.
