Kenneth Okonkwo
The leadership of the Labour Party has disowned its former Presidential Campaign Council spokesman, Kenneth Okonkwo, saying he is no longer a card-carrying member of LP.
The National Secretary of LP, Umar Farouk made the clarification in an exclusive interview with The PUNCH.
Farouk also admonished the legal practitioner to return to Nollywood and embrace his acting career, saying he lacks the attributes of a good politician.
The Labour Party National Secretary was reacting to Tuesday’s press statement by Okonkwo that he had resigned his party membership.
In the statement, the former LP campaign spokesperson said the party was not ready for the 2027 general elections due to internal and leadership crises.
He 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 the 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, I pledge my continued loyalty to the Nigerian people in all I will decide to do in my political future.”
Continuing, the Nollywood actor also said he was 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 the tenure of the party’s leadership had long elapsed and the caretaker committee set up to salvage the party had been hindered by unnecessary litigation.
He criticised the National Chairman of the LP, Julius Abure, for allegedly prioritising personal interests over the party’s survival.
“The former National Chairman of Labour Party, Julius Abure, and his former National Working Committee, having conducted no national convention known to law, according to the Independent National Electoral Commission and the courts having held that the issue of the leadership of a political party is the internal affair of a political party for which the courts do not have the jurisdiction to entertain, there’s no effective leadership of Labour Party at the national level.
“The Senator Nenadi Usman-led Caretaker Committee, which was duly and legally set up by the National Executive Council of the Labour Party, after the non-recognition of Abure-led National Working Committee by INEC, and was given six months to conduct congresses and the convention, was the only viable option towards salvaging the Labour Party.
“Unfortunately, Abure and his colleagues, with the collaboration of outside forces, expectedly, being political jobbers, launched unnecessary legal challenges against this Caretaker Committee that have inhibited it from functioning. It’s more than six months after the inauguration of the committee, and the committee has not even taken off, leading many to conclude that the objective of these politicians of bread and butter with their outside collaborators is to bog down the serious members of Labour Party with frivolous and unnecessary litigation till the 2027 election is over.
“Isn’t it curious that a national executive of a political party whose elected members are defecting everyday to other parties, and who can not wage legal battles to recover these seats for their party, is waging ferocious legal battles to maintain their destructive, choking hold on the party,” Okonkwo said.
However, reacting, Farouk said Okonkwo’s action did not really come to the LP as a surprise because of his famed role as a Nollywood actor.
While recalling that the lawyer left the party last year, the LP chieftain accused him of trying to drag the party in the mud for cheap popularity.
He said, “How many times is he going to resign from the party? Has he forgotten that he resigned about three, four or five months ago? It is only when he wants to find relevance that he opens his mouth to start talking again. I have already addressed that issue with him.
“He just finds joy throwing Abure’s name around. That is why everytime he seeks relevance, he starts talking Labour Party and Abure. Let him go. He has been in APGA, PDP and the APC. So what is he doing in Labour Party?
“Let him carry his bag and return to Nollywood where he came from. He should leave us alone. He doesn’t deserve to be in any political party because he is not a good politician.”
