Obi allies flay Kenneth Okonkwo over betrayal comments

Obi

Key allies of the Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, have dismissed recent comments by his former campaign spokesperson and veteran actor, Kenneth Okonkwo, in which he accused Obi of betrayal.

In a viral podcast interview on Saturday, Okonkwo claimed that despite working strenuously for Obi during and after the last presidential election, the former Anambra State governor betrayed him in the end.

He said, “Any politician that knows what he is 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, who officially exited LP in February 2025, argued that he had advised Obi to steer clear of the Julius Abure-led executives of the party, but he went ahead to publicly endorse the faction.

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He said, “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. But I told him, ‘Sir, you have made a public statement on integrity, and even if INEC has accepted them, that should not be a reason for you to return to a group that has shown they are not democratic. If you go back to them, they will destroy your political career and everything you’ve stood for.’

“After saying all those things, within 72 hours, Obi went to Abure’s office to publicly endorse them. While he was there speaking to them, one of the leaders in that executive sent me the video to mock me, saying the person I was defending against them had returned to endorse them.

“It was only when INEC later dissociated itself from Abure that Obi began acting neutral. But I told him he could not remain neutral and that something needed to be done.”

In a swift response, Obi’s key allies rejected Okonkwo’s claims, questioning his loyalty and describing his allegations as a politically motivated misrepresentation of facts.