By Chukwudi Nweje, Lagos
The Chairman of the Labour Party (LP) in Lagos State, Pastor Dayo Ekong, has accused the former chairman of the party in the state, Kayode Salako, of being a mole planted in the LP by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to destabilise the LP.
“Salako was a member of the APC for many years and only joined the LP as a mole to destabilise the LP.
“Salako had a mission and he knows what he came into the LP to do. Let me quote him” she said.
Ekong was reacting to claims by Salako, who resigned from the chairmanship of the party in January to contest for the House of Representative seat under the platform of the LP.
Salako had said that he gave the Governorship candidate of the LP, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, the party ticket free of charge and that Lagos State would have been set back 10 years had Rhodes-Vivour won the March 18 polls, noted that the former chairman was aggrieved because the LP did not allow him to constitute himself into a godfather.
“Salako wants to be a lord like it’s done in the APC and the PDP. He wants to wake up and see Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour call him in the morning to say, godfather, here I come. That is not what Labour Party represents. We have moved past that,” she said.
“We in the Labour Party, are about bringing about a new Nigeria, where everyone that has the credibility and the capacity can come out and say I’m contesting to bring about a new Nigeria because there’s no doubt about it, that Nigeria needs a new leadership, a leadership, that is for the people, a leadership that will put the people first. And that is what the Labour Party represents and not all these stories about ego and so on.”
She stated that Salako represented the old order of the APC and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), which the LP wants to change.
She further said: “It’s sad that somebody like Salako, who was a chairman in the LP, could talk about his party’s gubernatorial candidates this way.
“The truth of the matter is that Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour represents what the LP ideology is all about. Salako to me, represents the old system, the old ways of APC PDP. And there is no doubt that Salako does not represent the values of the LP, and what the party stands for.”