Former Labour Party (LP) chieftain and spokesperson for the party’s 2023 presidential campaign, Kenneth Okonkwo, has publicly accused Peter Obi of betrayal.
In a viral video circulating on social media, Okonkwo, who officially resigned from the Labour Party in February 2025, claimed that Obi abandoned him and ignored warnings about aligning with the Julius Abure-led faction of the LP.
“If there is anybody that betrayed the other, I can say it emphatically that Peter Obi betrayed me,” said Okonkwo, a former Nollywood actor.
According to him, Abure and his supporters misled Obi by claiming that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had recognised their leadership.
“The Julius Abure-led LP members lied to Obi that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had accepted them and Obi surreptitiously went back to them,” he said.
“But I told him: ‘Sir, you have made a public statement on integrity and even if INEC has accepted them, that is not a criterion for you to go back and start dealing with them because they have shown that they are not democratic. If you go back to them, they will destroy your political career and everything you have said about integrity will die’.”
He also warned Obi that returning to the Abure camp would be detrimental:
“I told Obi that these people had become agents in the hands of the government to destabilise him. What they did was absolutely illegal and unconstitutional. I told him that if he went back to them, I wouldn’t join him in doing so.”
Okonkwo revealed that he also informed members of Obi’s inner circle of his position:
“Thereafter, I called all the people that were in the inner circle and told them the same thing about what Obi was trying to do. I told them he wanted to go back with the Abure people and if he did, I wouldn’t go back with him because I do not swallow back my words.”
Just a few days later, he said, Obi returned to the Abure faction’s office and publicly endorsed them — a move that Okonkwo said stunned and embarrassed him.
“And after saying all those things, within like 72 hours, Obi went back to Abure’s office to publicly endorse them and while he was there talking to them, one of the leaders in that executive sent me the video to mock me that the person I was fighting for against them has come to their office to endorse them.”
He added: “It was when INEC dissociated itself from Abure that Obi came out to start acting neutral but I told him he could not be neutral and something had to be done.”
Explaining his decision to leave the Labour Party, Okonkwo said he lost confidence in Obi’s ability to build the kind of political platform required to challenge the status quo.
“I believed that Peter Obi will seize the momentum and build a solid party of integrity that will have the solid base that we need to overthrow these kakistocrats and kleptocrats. He just needed to give the right directives and everyone will fall in line.”
He said he was particularly alarmed by Obi’s public admission that building the Labour Party was not his priority.
“I received my first shock when he publicly declared that he didn’t promise Nigerians to build a strong Labour Party, but to solve Nigeria problems. I was like, does it mean HE Peter Obi is not aware that without a solid party base, we are heading to nowhere politically?”
Still, he said he kept defending Obi, hoping he would privately resolve the party’s issues, but that never happened.
Okonkwo also noted that although Obi had publicly called for an all-inclusive LP convention, he failed to act when the Abure-led executive ignored that directive.
“PO also publicly demanded that the Abure-led National Working Committee must organise an all-inclusive convention that will guarantee the participation of all members of Labour Party in the choice of their leaders.”
“This didn’t happen, and surprisingly, PO refused to disassociate himself from the shenanigans and criminal activities of the former NWC as their time has expired.”
The former LP spokesperson said party members are now confused and frustrated by Obi’s silence.
“Every member of Labour Party is confused today as to the future of Labour Party because of lack of leadership from PO over the party, and unfortunately, when they look up to me to tell them about PO’s standpoint, I sincerely have nothing to tell them because I don’t know myself.”
“I cannot continue to speak on behalf of a leader that I do not know his stand on issues of great importance. I simply don’t know how to manipulate facts.”
Okonkwo concluded by criticising Obi’s failure to support the Labour Unions that founded the party:
“I was shocked that Obi could not openly support the efforts of the Labour Unions who founded the Labour Party as a base to fight for the welfare of workers to the extent that some of them are openly saying that Obi is now the problem of the party.”
“They are fighting criminals who want to hijack their party when an ordinary statement from Obi would have brought the solution.”
