THEY HAVE COLLECTED MONEY FROM APCS – CRISIS LOOMS AS LP LEADERSHIP ATTACKS STATE FACTION OVER SACK OF OBI'S ALLY

The Labour Party (LP) has reacted to the sack of the Director General of Peter Obi Presidential Campaign Council, Doyin Okupe by a faction in Ogun state.

Leaders of the Ogun State Chapter of the party at a conference held in Abeokuta on Thursday had announced the expulsion of Okupe and ten other members.

The affected members were deputy State Chairman II East, Jagun Lookman; State Women Leader, Oluwabukola Soyoye, ex-State Treasurer, Gbadebo Fesomade; State Publicity Secretary, Jide Amusan; State Youth Leader, Abdulmalik Olaleye; Assistant State Youth Leader, Adeshina Shojobi; Senatorial Women Leader Ogun East, Deborah Adewale; Assistant State Secretary, Olatunde Abolade, Abel Olaleye and Abayomi Collins.

It would be recalled that Okupe has been having issues with the top hierarchy of the LP and some disgruntled members of the National Working Committee of the party, many of whom claim that he has a history of financial impropriety and intolerance.

He was also accused of polarising the party along with some alleged ‘dissident’ members he recruited from the Peoples Democratic Party.

However, barely an hour after the dismissal, the National Chairman of the party, Julius Abure, told Punch that it was fake news.

The National Chairman insisted that a state chapter does not possess the authority to suspend a campaign DG.

He alleged that the faction had collected financial benefits from All Progressives Congress to bring their plan to fruition.

Abure said, “It is fake news. Can a state chapter suspend a campaign DG? They don’t have the power. These are riff-raffs that have gone to the All Progressives Congress to collect money. The people purportedly doing this have no such power. Their decision cannot stand.”

But the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Abayomi Arabambi, was indifferent, challenging people who were not satisfied with Okupe’s sack to seek redress in court

Something that is all over the media including papers, television and radio broadcast? We are talking about what is in the Constitution of the Labour Party here. If anybody wants to contest it, we will meet in court to prove it,” he said.