Video: How Peter Obi betrayed me — Kenneth Okonkwo

Abdullateef Fowewe

Kenneth Okonkwo, a prominent member of the Labour Party (LP), has accused Peter Obi, the party’s presidential candidate for 2023, of betraying him.

Video link: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMSfytTE7/

Okonkwo made this claim during an interview with Symfoni shortly after officially resigning from the Labour Party in February 2025.

He said, “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.

“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 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’.

“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 noted that Obi had initially expressed intentions to distance himself from Abure, with a firm declaration that he would not return to Abure’s camp.

He further disclosed that he called everyone in the inner circle to warn them about Obi’s plan to go back to the Abure people. I made it clear that if he did, I wouldn’t follow because I don’t go back on my word.”

However, within 72 hours of this warning, Obi reportedly visited Abure’s office and publicly endorsed them.

He shared that during this visit, a leader from the opposing executive sent a video mocking him, highlighting that Obi had switched sides.

“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.

“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.

The situation escalated further when the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) publicly distanced itself from Abure.

Following this, Obi attempted to adopt a neutral stance.

“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.