The leadership crisis rocking the Ebonyi State chapter of the Labour Party has taken on another dimension. The party has been in crisis since the 2023 general elections.
Two factions, one loyal to Splendour Oko Eze, the 2023 governorship candidate of the party and the other to former Minister of State for Health, Chief Fidelis Nwankwo, have been at war over the control of the party in the state.
The crisis persisted last weekend when the Nwankwo faction declared the former Minister of State for Health the leader of the Labour Party in the state.
This is contained in a communiqué signed by some leaders of the party who are loyal to Nwankwo. The communiqué was signed by Chief Linus Okorie, Dr Ezeh Emmanuel Ezeh, and Chief Emmanuel Nwobia.
But the Splendour Eze faction said Eze remains the state leader of the Labour Party in the state.
In a statement signed by Comrade Igiri Innocent, the chairman of the State Transition Committee, Labour Party in Ebonyi State, the faction said Nwankwo was too old to be the leader of the Labour Party in Ebonyi.
“We have the mandate of the people to inform the general public that the Labour Party Ebonyi State chapter will never accept Fidelis Nwankwo as the leader of the Labour Party in the state, as being proposed by some notorious political game hijackers, for very bad, obvious reasons.
“Just to mention a few, Fidelis Nwankwo is too old and belongs to the old system, which the youths are seeking to change through Mr. Peter Obi.
“Secondly, Fidelis Nwankwo, whom the hijackers are projecting to be the leader, has forgotten that the person who brought him to the Labour Party is our leader, Comrade Splendour Oko Eze.
“We, therefore, make bold to inform the general public that the leader of the Labour Party in Ebonyi State is no other person but Comrade Splendour Oko Eze, the 2023 gubernatorial candidate of the party in Ebonyi State.
“Just as Mr. Peter Obi, by virtue of his being the presidential candidate of the Labour Party in 2023, is today the leader of the party in the entire nation, so is Splendour Oko Eze.
“Anyone who wishes to be our leader in the state should first of all go and remove Splendour Oko Eze from being the 2023 guber candidate, then he can aspire to lead,” the faction said.
