Labour Party executives attack each other on live TV

Labour Party executives on Thursday, April 27, took to national television to drag each other following the crisis rocking their party.

Prince Kennedy Ahanotu, Deputy National Secretary of the Labour Party and Akingbade Oyinlekun, Factional Labour Party Legal Adviser were on Arise TV Morning Show, to discuss issues affecting the party.

Kennedy accused Oyinlekun of attempting to withdraw the petition of Peter Obi and the Labour Party from the election tribunal.

He narrated how Akingbade and his cohorts besieghed the party office and distributed positions among themselves without any prior meeting being held.

"They went ahead to say they have dissolved the campaign council without consulting anybody. Beyond the things they have committed within this short period, a notice a withdrawal was issued in Edo state, were Akingbade said he represented the Labour Party without consulting the National Chairman and leadership of the party to withdraw cases of our candidate when he won actively in Edo state," Kennedy said.

Responding to the claims Akingbade denied attempting to withdraw the election petition and he stands with Peter Obi as compared to what Kennedy Ahanotu claims.

"There was never a move made or attempt to withdraw the petition of Peter Obi from the tribunal. I saw it on the news and I challenged them to present documents where we actually filed to withdraw Peter Obi from the tribunal. There was nothing like that. Kennedy and his cohorts are just alarmist, confusionist, they don't even know what they want. We are not ready to withdraw any petition of the Labour Party. Like I tell people, there is no crisis in Labour Party, we just have misunderstanding."

Speaking about the incident that occurred in Edo state, Akingbade said; "In Edo, Labour Party candidate is Moffi not Ativie. Moffi went to court and won because he participated in the primaries of the party and he became the winner. But Julius Abure, the former National Chairman in his usual way, collected money and changed name, these are the things that happened all over the country."

In reaction to Akingbade's comment, Kennedy noted that, "I am surprised Akingbade passed through law school. As far as I know, there is no competent jurisdiction that has indicted Abure, this is just an interim order of police.

A barrister, in the person of Akingbade, is he not supposed to be a legal adviser of the party? If there is any case against an officer of the party who should advise? Who did he advise? rather he went and connived with somebody that used to be our state chairman in Ebonyi state, who was given ticket on interim bases to hold brief as a placeholder when we were not having a candidate."

"Akingbade should know as a lawyer that as long as Labour Party is concerned, it is not the court that will decide the Labour Party leadership. The Supreme Court have said it, the Appeal Court have said it that the leadership of political parties is not subject to discussion by any court. It is a family business and Akingbade that is here making noise, shouting is more corrupt than any other person in the Labour Party.

Since, I joined this Labour Party in 2017, I've taken time, I'm the youngest among them, and I've under studied most of them. Akingbade that is pointing finger at Abure is a more terrible human being. Let him take me up to that. I am willing to challenge him up to any point with good evidences.

Rufai asked Kennedy to prove his allegations on national television.

"Kennedy you have to prove to me here why you say Akingbade Oyinlekun is corrupt. You have to prove it to me."

Kennedy continued; "It’s on record that in 2014, we have a very striving candidate in Ebonyi state and in fact we won that Ebonyi state election and the winner was declared by INEC with just over 200 votes. It was this same Akingbade, before this 2023 election, we were hiding Akingbade from some candidates of the party because they said if they see Akingbade they will no longer run under the platform of the party.

Ebonyi state election, Akingbade withdrew it. He can't say he didn't withdraw it without due approval of the party. Again, there are several instances, I have a brother who wanted to run for House of Rep in Lagos, Akingbade defrauded him. He is still alive and in fact he is doing a petition against Akingbade with evidences of all the money he collected from him.

He is seated there, let him point at me in areas where I have defrauded anybody in this party. But I am putting it to him that him that he withdrew the petition of the party. He has a track record of illicit engagement and activities and I can't wash his pants beyond what I've said on this national tv, let me just leave it at this. But if you want us to washing our pants, I'm willing to do that.

Rufai urged them to continue in the revelation. "Kennedy you can just go ahead, you can wash it anyway you want on national tv," Rufai said.

Both Kennedy and Rufai laughed.

Rufai continued: You've made these allegations against Mr Akingbade and if it’s only these two allegations, you can go more, go ahead because he is going to reply to you. You have to provide evidence; you can go ahead and wash it more. And the second question I have is did Abure collect N200 million as alleged by Mr Akingbade? But please go ahead and keep washing anything you want to wash, lets wash dirty linens in public.

Kennedy; Julius Abure did not collect any N200 million as claimed and I wouldn't want to go beyond these two points for courtesy sake."

Responding to the allegations, Akingbade said; “Kennedy who was a messenger at that time could not know what we were doing, so he couldn’t be speaking for the party. He also spoke about allegations and Akingbade is corrupt and all that, I want to say that in Lagos alone, I handle 76 cases for Labour Party and I’ve not been given one kobo.

At the Federal High Court in Abuja, I handle 24 states cases for Labour Party and I won all. I’ve not been given one kobo for that. At the Court of Appeal as I speak in Abuja, I handle 21 cases for Labour Party, as at now, I won 12. We are still expecting the other judgment.

I’ve not been given one kobo. If somebody like Kennedy is talking about being corrupt, he does not know what he is doing. Because Kennedy is also benefiting from the fraud of Abure, because he used to collect little crumbs from Abure so he can be speaking on behalf of Abure. Abure on national TV collected N200 million from the candidate in Ebonyi state,” Akingbade insists.

BS