The National Legal Adviser of the Labour Party (LP), Isaac Abiodun Fashakin, has resigned.
He said the party did not follow due process in dissolving the state executives to accommodate new LP members.
Fashakin specifically berated the party for dissolving the state executives in Ogun and Ekiti states to pave the way for Opeyemi Bamidele (Ekiti Central Federal Constituency) and former Ogun State Governor Gbenga Daniel to control the party’s machinery.
He said Bamidele’s acceptance into the party and the installation of Akin Omole as Ekiti LP interim chairman contravened the party’s constitution.
Speaking with reporters in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, Fashakin said the party should have conducted state congresses, instead of “imposing candidates on members”.
In his letter to the LP National Chairman, Dan Iwuanyanwu, dated January 6, Fasakin said: “LP is a party that could easily capture power, if its system is allowed to work in accordance with the party’s constitution without recurrent to arbitrary manipulations. The latest happenings in the party are aberrations and palpable disregard for due process.
“It is against this backdrop that I hereby formally notify you of my resignation as the National Legal Adviser.”
Fasakin, who vied for the Ekiti South senatorial seat on the platform of the LP in 2011 and lost to Tony Adeniyi of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), said allowing Bamidele’s men to hijack the party in Ekiti would spell doom for the LP.
Fashakin, who hails from Ise-Ekiti in Ise/Orun Local Government Area, said Daniel also hijacked the party in Ogun to the detriment of old members.
He said: “There are rules a new entrant must follow before he can be accepted. He must declare at the ward and local government levels, but nothing of such happened in the case of Bamidele and Daniel. The party ignored my advice, which I cannot overlook.”
Fashakin said Ondo State Governor Olusegun Mimiko and LP national leaders were aware of the illegalities.