It Is An Insult To Democracy – Kenneth Okonkwo Frowns At Abure's Arrest

Kenneth Okonkwo

Veteran actor and chieftain of the Labour Party (LP), Kenneth Okonkwo has condemned the arrest of the party's National Chairman, Julius Abure, on Wednesday, February 21.

Recall that Abure was arrested alongside the Edo state chairman of the party, Kelly Ogbaloi, and two others, by a combined team of police officers and operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS).

Kenneth, in a statement via X on Thursday titled ‘ARREST OF ABURE; AN INSULT TO DEMOCRACY’, slammed the Edo State Police Public Relations Officer.

He claimed that Abure’s arrest was an attempt to disrupt the conduct of the Edo State gubernatorial primary election.

Kenneth Okonkwo argued that the security agency could have waited after the party’s election, adding that Abure should be dealt with if he had committed any breach of the law.

The statement read, “The ill-advised arrest and manhandling of the National Chairman of Labour Party, Julius Abure, by an obvious partisan Edo Police Command, is an insult to democracy.

“It is a shame that the incompetent Edo Police PRO, who obviously displayed absolute lack of knowledge of law, could use the phrase “factional National Chairman” for Abure. This is a pure political statement that the police force, as a non- partisan organisation, is forbidden to make.

“Attempting to disorganise Labour Party on the eve of organising its Edo gubernatorial primary election when APC and PDP have failed to conduct theirs successfully shows that the arrest is a political arrow shot against Labour Party to achieve the disorganisation of the primary election.

“The job of the police is the maintenance of law and order, not to forment anarchy. What was so urgent in the arrest of Abure that couldn’t wait until after the gubernatorial primary of LP in Edo. If Abure committed any breach of the law, he should be dealt with in accordance with the law not in accordance with brute force.

“Why has Edo Police not arrested APC Leaders who openly used thugs to scatter the APC Gubernatorial primary election? They were rather quick in arresting Abure who was not even present when Edo people resisted some persons who wanted to extort money from them under the false pretence that they were Labour Party officials trying to organise gubernatorial primary election in Edo. Rather than arresting the extortionists, and the impostors,the Police is arresting the legitimate Labour Party officials in Edo. This must stop.”