LP can’t zone presidency to south in 2027 if Abure remains chairman, says Kenneth Okonkwo

Kenneth Okonkwo, a former spokesperson for the Labour Party (LP) presidential campaign council, says the party cannot produce a presidential candidate from the south in 2027 if Julius Abure remains the national chairman.

The LP campaign spokesperson in the 2023 elections resigned his party membership on Tuesday.

He added that the LP’s internal crisis and leadership struggles have rendered it ineffective in achieving good governance and national transformation.

Speaking on Politics Today, a Channels Television programme, Okonkwo said no authority is governing the opposition party.

“Anarchy is the absence of authority or non-recognition of authority. Now in Labour Party, there is no authority that is governing the Labour Party,” he said.

“I don’t think I have read any court decision that said Abure is the authentic national chairman. What happened is that all the court they went to because they knew that there was no convention, so they always avoid the issue of convention.

“They will come to court and say court, we need to have our agents in Ondo. You have to give us power. INEC is precluding us from fielding our agents.

“If we don’t have the agents, we are doomed. There is only one leadership, give us order to field our agents under the leadership of Abure.

“That is the trickish and cunny way they have been going about the issue of leadership of Labour Party,” he added.

‘I’M ESCAPING FROM LP’S SINKING SHIP’

The Nollywood actor, who had earlier said he was open to pitching his political tent elsewhere, noted that he is escaping from the party’s sinking ship.

“I am not jumping any ship. I am simply escaping from a sinking ship. I am jumping into safety, but let us put it this way,” he said.

” I came into politics for good governance. I did not come into politics aspiring for any position. You know what Jesus Christ will say?

“He would be the king of the gentile lords over people, but he that should be the greatest among you should be your servant.

“I came into politics to serve. Because my faith made it clear to me that wherever I am, I should look for the interest of the people being their servant.

“When I came into the Labour Party, I saw people who have not tasted any fortune in their lives, who are using the Labour Party as a tool to enrich themselves.

“If a man is serious, in 2027 he still wants to bring a southern presidential candidate. How can that the same man coming from the south angling to be the national chairman of that same party?

“That will be voodoo politics in Nigerian reality because what sank the PDP in the 2023 presidential election was that sentiment that the presidency ought to be zoned to the south.

“Atiku Abubakar, having taken over the presidency, they pleaded with him, ‘Please cede the national board chairman to the south. He still refused and the PDP is where it is today.

“So, anybody in the Labour Party who is from the south and saying he wants to be the national chairman and wants to put a southern presidential candidate in 2027 is simply dishonest.

“He knows that the north can’t accept any party that does not have any northern input either as national chairman or the presidential candidate of the party.”

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.