Kenneth Okonkwo has accused Peter Obi of betrayal over Labour Party’s internal leadership rift.
He claims Obi ignored warnings and sided with a faction he believes lacks integrity and legitimacy.
Veteran Nollywood actor and former spokesperson of the Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council, Kenneth Okonkwo, has publicly accused Peter Obi of betraying him in the midst of the party’s internal struggles.
In a recent interview with Symfoni, which has gained attention online since Saturday, Okonkwo opened up about why he parted ways with the Labour Party in February 2025. He said that Obi ignored his guidance and chose to support the Julius Abure-led faction, a move Okonkwo views as a deep personal betrayal.
“Any politician that knows what he’s doing cannot be betrayed by another. If there is anybody that betrayed the other, I can say it emphatically that Peter Obi betrayed me,” Okonkwo stated during the interview.
He accused the party executives loyal to Abure of misleading Obi by claiming that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had recognized their faction. Despite warning Obi against siding with the group, Okonkwo said the former presidential candidate still went ahead to align with them.
“The Julius Abure-led LP members lied to Obi that the Independent National Electoral Commission had accepted them and Obi surreptitiously went back to them,” he said.
Okonkwo explained that he had reminded Obi of his past public statements about integrity and cautioned him that associating with a group he considered undemocratic could damage his political credibility.
“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,’” Okonkwo recalled.
He also claimed to have made private efforts to convince Obi not to align with the faction, which he described as acting on behalf of the government to weaken the Labour Party.
“I told Obi that these people had become agents in the hands of the government to destabilize 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,” he said.
According to Okonkwo, he also informed other members of Obi’s inner circle about his position, making it clear that he would not compromise his principles.
“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,” he added.
Okonkwo said he was stunned when Obi visited the Abure-led faction’s office and publicly endorsed them. He revealed that someone within the faction sent him a video of the visit in a mocking tone.
“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,” Okonkwo said.
He concluded by saying Obi only started acting neutral after INEC distanced itself from the Abure faction.
“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,” he said.
