The Labour Party in Enugu State has suffered yet another major setback as Engr. George Ugwu, the former spokesman of the 2023 gubernatorial campaign of Hon. Barr. Chijioke Jonathan Edeoga, officially defected to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) alongside a large number of his supporters.

Ugwu, popularly known as Ezeudo, made the move during the PDP Local Government monthly meeting held on Saturday, June 14, 2025, at the Enugu East Local government Secretariat.

The defection, which had been hinted at during the PDP ward meeting on May 7 in his hometown of Ugwogo Ward, was formally ratified in the presence of the PDP State Executive Committee led by its Chairman, Dr. Martin Chukwubuike.

The political shift has caused the collapse of the Labour Party’s structure in Ugwogo and Mbuluiyikwu Wards, where Ugwu previously commanded strong grassroots support.

His departure further deepens the internal crisis and weakening influence of the LP in Enugu East, following the earlier exit of key figures, including Hon. Edeoga himself.

Speaking during the meeting, Engr. Ugwu explained the rationale behind his decision, expressing disappointment in the current state of the Labour Party and its failure to uphold the ideals they once campaigned on.

“We toiled day and night, ward after ward, believing in a vision that was never realised,” Ugwu said.

“What we now see is a party without focus or leadership. Since my principal, Hon. Edeoga, returned to the PDP, it became evident that the LP had lost its essence.”

Ugwu commended the performance of Enugu State Governor Barr. Peter Ndubuisi Mba, whose developmental strides he described as “people-centered, progressive, and visionary.”

He cited major achievements of the administration such as:

• The construction of smart schools in rural areas
• The dualisation of the Abakpa–Opi–Nsukka road
• The establishment of Type 2 health centres
• Youth and women empowerment initiatives

“This is not about party colours; it is about the people. As a technocrat and someone passionate about service, I cannot sit by and watch good governance from afar. I am here to support Governor Mba’s transformative agenda” he said.

In his remarks, Engr. Pastor Beloved Dan Anike, Executive Chairman of Enugu East LGA, welcomed Ugwu and praised his political relevance and influence.

“Engineer George Ugwu was a major force during the last election. Having him and his base in the PDP today is a big boost. With his grassroots support and dedication, the 2027 elections will be a much easier path for us.”

Ugwu was joined by dozens of Labour Party supporters from his stronghold.

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.”

The Presidency has refuted claims that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu conferred national honours on prominent human rights activist Aisha Yesufu and 35 others, describing the reports as “fake news.”

Yesufu, widely recognised for her pivotal involvement in the 2020 End SARS protests, was listed in a document circulating on social media that named 102 supposed recipients of national honours.

The document sparked widespread debate, particularly among supporters of President Tinubu’s administration.

Temitope Ajayi, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, issued a statement via Facebook on Friday debunking the claim.

“The story on a viral list of national honours featuring the name of Aisha Yesufu and others credited to the Leadership newspaper is fake news. It should be ignored,” Ajayi stated.

He went on to provide clarification: “The Presidency has not issued fresh names for national honour different from the ones in President Tinubu’s address to the joint sitting of the National Assembly yesterday.”

The President had announced national awards on Thursday, June 13, during his address at a joint session of the National Assembly in Abuja to mark the 2025 Democracy Day celebration. Only 66 recipients were officially named.

Among those honoured posthumously were Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, a former Chief of Staff; Prof. Humphrey Nwosu, the ex-NEC Chairman who supervised the 1993 elections; and Kudirat Abiola, wife of late MKO Abiola and a heroine of the June 12 democracy movement.

As Nigeria marked the anniversary of the June 12, 1993 election, widely regarded as the freest in the nation’s history, the pan-Yoruba sociopolitical group Afenifere has renewed calls for constitutional restructuring, urging President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Nigeria’s political elite to make it a top priority ahead of the 2027 general elections.

In a strongly worded statement, Oba Oladipo Olaitan, Afenifere’s leader, lamented the state of Nigeria’s democracy, describing it as a “pseudo democracy,” and declared that only a comprehensive reconfiguration of the country’s political structure could address the long-standing consequences of the June 12 annulment.

“Another anniversary confirming that June 12, 1993 evidently happened to Nigeria is here again.”

“Chief M.K.O. Abiola and his pan-Nigerian mandate were killed by the self-serving political wing of the military and their collaborators. Very many innocent lives were lost,”
Afenifere said in its commemorative statement.

The group argued that Nigeria has remained a “mere geographical expression” since the 1914 amalgamation and warned that without meaningful restructuring into a true federation, progress would remain elusive.

It also took aim at the political system, particularly the winner-takes-all approach and the expensive governance model, blaming these for widespread injustice, ethnic tension, and national disunity.

“There must be a fundamental shift away from the ‘winner-takes-all, buy-and-sell modality of capturing political power.”

“A new governance framework to be embodied in a new constitutional order is the silver bullet that will likely restore order to what we all know as a mere geographical territory,”
the statement added.

Afenifere expressed deep concern over what it termed the “unbridled latitude” of the Nigerian presidency under the 1999 Constitution, arguing that the office has become both excessively powerful and financially unsustainable.

“It is no longer sustainable to maintain the large paraphernalia of office and bureaucracy at the expense of the masses.”

“A new constitution has become the irreducible minimum to guarantee the shift of emphasis towards rapid infrastructural development to the benefit of ordinary citizens,”
the group declared.

Despite the daunting nature of overhauling the current political structure, Afenifere insisted that time still permits the drafting and adoption of a new constitution before the 2027 elections, calling it the most viable path toward restoring Nigeria’s democratic promise.

The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has stood firm on his decision to rename the Abuja International Conference Centre (ICC) after President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, declaring that he has “no regret at all” over the move.

Speaking during the commissioning of the 15-kilometre left-hand service carriageway of the OSEX Stage II project, from Ring Road I to Wassa Junction, on Friday, Wike dismissed backlash surrounding the renaming and cost of rehabilitating the centre.

The reopening of the newly renovated ICC earlier in the week drew widespread reactions, with some critics questioning both the N39 billion price tag and the decision to name it after President Tinubu.

Some labeled the spending a misplaced priority, especially in light of Nigeria’s economic challenges.

In response, Wike rejected the criticisms as baseless and historically inconsistent.

“I have done it, and I have no regret at all,” the minister stated.

He pointed to precedents in Nigeria’s history, noting that major national landmarks had previously been named after figures who were not involved in building them.

“Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport was not built by Azikiwe and Moshood Abiola National Stadium was not built by Abiola,” he said.

He also stressed that the renovation was not cosmetic, but a comprehensive overhaul of the facility.

“The only thing that was not changed in the centre was the structure, everything in that centre was changed,” Wike explained.

Critics, he argued, lacked a proper understanding of economic realities, especially when comparing construction costs over time.

“They said that the centre was built with N240 million, but which year? 1991. What was the exchange rate in 1991 compared with today? Look at it, 1991 and we are now in 2025,” he said.

The minister was emphatic that such comparisons ignore inflation and the depreciation of the naira over the decades.

“Nobody who loves this country will criticise the rehabilitation of the international conference centre,” he said.

Wike concluded by expressing pride in the symbolic value of the renovation, saying it reflected Nigeria’s status on the continent.

“We deserve the best for the country and Mr President has given us the best,” he declared, adding that Nigeria must showcase its position as the “giant of Africa” through infrastructure befitting that stature.

Bello El-Rufai, a member of Nigeria’s House of Representatives, has admitted that he was misguided in his past criticisms of former President Goodluck Jonathan, attributing his actions to youthful naivety.

Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Thursday evening, the Kaduna lawmaker publicly expressed regret and extended an apology for the way he once spoke about Jonathan’s administration, which ran from 2010 to 2015.

El-Rufai reflected on how, in hindsight, he had underestimated the quality of governance during Jonathan’s tenure.

“I even forgot in my naivety, as many young people do, that we had governance then,” he said.

He recounted a personal moment that triggered his realization.

According to him, it occurred during a visit to his father, former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai, when he saw him preparing to meet the ex-president for political consultations.

“There was a time I paid my father a visit and noticed that he was going out. I asked where he was going.

“And he said he was going to see President Jonathan, and I paused because when I was naive or when I thought ego or gratification mattered, I used to be very active in criticising President Jonathan.”

Moved by this new understanding, Bello said he urged his father to relay an apology to Jonathan.

“I found my father saying that he will consult President Jonathan. I said: ‘please, when you see him, tell him I am very sorry, I am wiser now’.”

He also praised Jonathan’s statesmanship, particularly for conceding defeat in the 2015 election—an uncommon gesture in African politics.

“The system is a problem. Now, why did I mention President Jonathan? It takes a lot, particularly in Africa, to lose an election and leave. He (Jonathan) did that,” El-Rufai added.

Members of the Rivers State Caucus in the National Assembly have strongly criticised Senator Henry Seriake Dickson (Bayelsa West) over his call for the reinstatement of suspended Governor Siminalayi Fubara, describing the remarks as “misleading, inflammatory, and potentially destabilising.”

In a press briefing following an emergency meeting in Abuja, Chairman of the Caucus and House Minority Leader, Hon. Kingsley Chinda, said Dickson’s comments could “jeopardise the fragile peace efforts currently underway” in Rivers State.

The lawmakers expressed concern over Dickson’s condemnation of the federal government’s declaration of a state of emergency in Rivers and his call on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to reverse the suspension of Governor Fubara.

The caucus alleged that Dickson was attempting to “incite unrest” and undermine ongoing peace processes in the oil-rich state.

Chinda insisted that the emergency declaration was “a lawful, constitutional response to escalating political instability and a deteriorating security climate in the state.”

He cited Section 305 of the 1999 Constitution, which gives the President the authority to declare a state of emergency when national security and public order are under threat.

Reacting to Dickson’s characterization of the emergency administration as military rule, Chinda said:

“Senator Dickson’s attempt to portray the emergency rule as military governance is not only false but intellectually dishonest.”

He clarified that the appointed Sole Administrator, Vice Admiral (Rtd.) Ibok-Ete Ibas, is now operating as a civilian.

“Just as Senator Dickson, a retired police corporal, is no longer an active service member, Ibas too is a civilian. It is grossly inaccurate to insinuate that Rivers is under military rule.”

The Rivers lawmakers also pointed to the Supreme Court’s ruling on February 28, 2025, which declared the absence of a functional government in Rivers, as legal backing for the federal intervention.

Chinda questioned Dickson’s motives, noting that even Fubara had publicly expressed gratitude to President Tinubu for intervening to prevent chaos.

“It is therefore curious that Dickson, an outsider to the state, has chosen to champion what he termed a false narrative and stir up tension in the state,” he said.

“It is unfortunate that a former governor and serving senator, who should understand the responsibilities that come with leadership, is engaging in divisive rhetoric capable of igniting violence,” Chinda added.

“He is not from Rivers. If he wants to stir trouble, let him do so in Bayelsa. We will not allow external actors to destabilise our state.”

The caucus called on Nigerian security agencies to closely monitor Dickson’s activities and urged the Senate Committee on Ethics to investigate his conduct.

Chinda further recalled previous controversies involving the senator, particularly during his tenure as Bayelsa governor.

“His track record speaks for itself. He lacks the moral standing to preach about democracy,” he asserted, referring to Dickson’s alleged disruption of a Federal High Court sitting in the past.

The lawmakers firmly urged Senator Dickson to stay out of Rivers politics, insisting that his interventions were neither constructive nor welcomed.

Also speaking, Senator Allwell Onyesoh (Rivers East) echoed the caucus’s concerns, describing Dickson’s remarks as “highly inappropriate and unhelpful.”

He called for restraint and responsible leadership from all sides:
“This is a time for calm reflection and responsible leadership,” Onyesoh said.

“Rivers people deserve stability and governance, not provocations from those who are not even directly affected by the crisis,” he concluded.