KENNETH OKONKWO QUITS LABOUR PARTY, GIVES REASONS
KENNETH OKONKWO QUITS LABOUR PARTY, GIVES REASONS A former spokesperson for the Labour Party (LP) Presidential Campaign Organisation in 2023, Kenneth Okonkwo, has announced his resignation from the party. Announcing his resignation from the party on Tuesday, Kenneth Okonkwo thanked Nigerians for the support they gave the Labour Party during the 2023 presidential election. “We were the only party that had 25% foothold in all six geo-political zones and the Federal Capital Territory. I believe that we won the election under the Labour Party with your support but were denied the victory through technical glitch”, he said. He stated that by February 25, 2025, it will be two years after the 2023 presidential election and two years before the next presidential election. “It’s a democratic convention worldwide that effective political consultations, alignments, and re-alignments commence two years to the next election. Unfortunately, the Labour Party, as presently constituted, is not in a position to be part of that political force that will determine the political future of Nigeria. According to him, Labour Party as presently constituted does not exist. “In the constitution of Labour Party, the tenure of the ward, local government, and state party executives is three years. Having conducted no congresses at these levels within the constitutionally allowed tenure of the executives, their regimes have effectively expired. “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 (INEC), 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 (NEC) of the Labour Party, after the non-recognition of Abure-led National Working Committee (NWC) 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, 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. ” It’s obvious that Abure is not interested in the survival of Labour Party as he is interested in the survival of his pocket. If he is interested in the emergence of a southern candidate in Labour Party to challenge Tinubu in the 2027 presidential election, going by the convention of having a northern national chairman of a party and a southern presidential candidate of the same party, whenever going into election, the first thing he would have done is to cede the position of national chairman to the North since the party is interested in fielding a presidential candidate from the South. “This was the suggestion of people like us who are genuinely interested in the survival and flourishing of Labour Party. Nigerians, especially the North, may have overlooked the combination of both the … national chairman and presidential candidate from…