THE PRICE OF BETRAYAL: HOW DR. KEHINDE SOGUNLE TRADED OUR PARTY’S FUTURE FOR HIS PDP AMBITION

By Kika Glasgow, Publicity Secretary, Ogun State Labour Party

SOGUNLE

Abeokuta, Ogun State — The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has released the final list of candidates for the 2027 governorship and State House of Assembly elections in Ogun State. The Labour Party is conspicuously absent. 

Let that sink in.

A party that produced the presidency in the 2023 presidential election in Ogun State. A party that mobilised millions of Nigerian youth, artisans, market women, and the downtrodden. A party built on the sweat and sacrifice of ordinary members across the 20 local government areas of this state.

Today, we have no governorship candidate on the INEC list. Today, we have no House of Assembly candidates on the INEC list. We have been erased from the ballot in Ogun State.

And who is responsible? Dr. Kehinde Sogunle.

THE CHAIN OF EVENTS

We saw this coming.  We unveiled Hon. Mojisola Oluwaseun Ajayi as our consensus governorship candidate for 2027.  We presented candidates for all elective positions through consensus.  We told the world that the Labour Party was one body, one family, ready to rescue Ogun State from political robbers. 

That unity was deliberately sabotaged.

Dr. Kehinde Sogunle, who has never renounced his membership of the Labour Party, proceeded to create a parallel executive led by Alhaji Onabiyi Ibrahim to rival the legitimate executive led by Apagun Olaolu Samuel Babatunde. This parallel structure was not an organic expression of internal democracy. It was a calculated instrument of destruction, designed to create the exact confusion that INEC cited in refusing to recognise our candidates.

Let us be clear about what has happened. A man who is serving as Director-General of the Ladi Adebutu Campaign Organisation for the PDP—a man who writes publicly praising the PDP template and attacking the APC—has also been holding onto his Labour Party membership while engineering a factional crisis that has now destroyed the Labour Party’s chances in Ogun State.

THE SOGUNLE PLAYBOOK

This is not new. This is the same playbook Dr. Sogunle executed in 2023.

In 2023, he joined the Labour Party, pretending to be a serious contender for the governorship position. When he could not get the ticket, he took the rest of the Labour Party members to form an alliance with the PDP for monetary gain. He received over N230 million in his personal account, disbursed it without transparency, and failed to account for it.

Now, in 2027, he has done it again. But this time, the damage is far worse. This time, he has not just hijacked the party’s money. He has hijacked the party’s very existence.

He created a parallel executive. He caused the internal crisis that led to INEC refusing to recognise our candidates. He has effectively taken the Labour Party off the ballot in Ogun State. And he has done all of this while simultaneously serving as the Director-General of the PDP’s governorship campaign.

The Labour Party in Ogun State has been sacrificed on the altar of Dr. Sogunle’s personal ambition. Thousands of candidates who invested their resources, their time, and their hopes into contesting under our platform have been denied their rightful place on the ballot.

THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE

We have heard the pain in the voice of our members. Comrade Olayemi Olalekan, the Labour Party Chairman of Sagamu Local Government and Chairman of the Chairmen Forum, captured the anguish of the grassroots in his weekend message:

“What is our gain in the Labour Party? What are the benefits of being a member Elupee? Is our labor not in vain? Are all the monies spent simply wasted away, all because of issues and selfish interests? All the travel, night calls, data, recharge cards, etc., seem to be wasted.

He asked the questions that every Labour Party member in Ogun State is asking today: 

 Where is the power of having been in the Labour Party for the past 20 years? Why have our leaders allowed selfish interests to destroy our great party?

These are legitimate questions. And the answer is simple: Dr. Kehinde Sogunle and his co-travellers placed their personal ambition above the collective future of our party.

OUR POSITION: WE ARE ON TOP OF THE SITUATION

To every Labour Party member across the 20 local government areas of Ogun State, we say: be calm. We are on top of the situation.

The legitimate leadership of the Ogun State Labour Party, under State Chairman Apagun Olaolu Samuel Babatunde, is taking all necessary steps to address this crisis. We are exploring every available legal and constitutional avenue to protect the interests of our members and restore the party to its rightful place on the ballot.

We call on all members to remain law-abiding and peaceful. Do not take the law into your own hands. Do not allow yourselves to be provoked by the agents of destruction who are working for the PDP. The courts will settle this. The truth will prevail.

We also call on the National Working Committee of the Labour Party, under the legitimate leadership of National Chairman Senator Nenadi Esther Usman—elected at the historic Umuahia National Convention of 28th April 2026—to intervene decisively.  The National Chairman has already demonstrated her commitment to reconciliation and integration.  We urge her to apply that same spirit here in Ogun State by affirming the legitimate executive led by Apagun Olaolu Samuel Babatunde and sanctioning Dr. Kehinde Sogunle and Alhaji Onabiyi Ibrahim for anti-party activities.

We also call on INEC to review its decision. The Labour Party has candidates. The Labour Party has a legitimate executive. We have candidates.  We should not be denied participation in the 2027 elections because one man chose to serve two masters.

TO THE PEOPLE OF OGUN STATE 

> The people of Ogun State have seen the true colours of Dr. Kehinde Sogunle. A man who lectures the public about institutional integrity while destroying the institutions of the party that gave him a platform. A man who preaches about prebendalism while practising the very transactional politics he condemns.

The Labour Party remains the authentic vehicle for the emancipation of the masses. We may have been temporarily knocked down, but we are not out. We are rebuilding. We are reconciling. And we will return stronger.

Dr. Sogunle may have sold our party’s yesterday for thirty pieces of silver. But that of today and tomorrow shall be redeemed and secured henceforth.

E-Signed,

Kika Glasgow

Publicity Secretary, Ogun State Labour Party

October 11, 2026

OGUN LABOUR PARTY: KEHINDE SOGUNLE, A POLITICAL MERCENARY, NOT A SOCIAL DEMOCRAT

By Kika Glasgow, Publicity Secretary, Ogun State Labour Party_

Abeokuta, Ogun State — The Ogun State Labour Party has read with utter disbelief the latest political treatise by Dr. Kehinde Sogunle, who parades himself as Director-General of the Ladi Adebutu Campaign Organisation (LCO) for the 2027 gubernatorial election, while conveniently refusing to renounce his membership of our great party.

Let it be stated unambiguously: Dr. Sogunle is not a member of the Labour Party in any moral or political sense. He is a political opportunist who has consistently treated our party as a transactional vehicle to be boarded, exploited, and discarded at will. His latest intellectual gymnastics, dressed in the borrowed robes of Richard Joseph’s prebendalism, is nothing but a desperate attempt to sanitise a career built on the very political predation he now claims to condemn.

*THE 2023 ALLIANCE: A CASE STUDY IN TRANSACTIONAL POLITICS*

The public record is clear. In March 2023, Dr. Sogunle, having failed to secure the Labour Party governorship ticket and having seen his candidacy excluded from the INEC list, unilaterally collapsed the Labour Party structure into an alliance with the PDP, just 24 hours before the governorship election. He charged all Obidients and Labour Party members to vote for the PDP’s Ladi Adebutu, a decision that was never ratified by any competent organ of the party.

What Dr. Sogunle has never explained — and what our current State Chairman, Apagun Olaolu Samuel Babatunde, has now publicly confirmed — is the financial dimension of that alliance. A substantial sum, running into over two hundred and thirty million naira, was eventually agreed by him to have been released to facilitate the logistics of that electoral collaboration. Dr. Sogunle, who positioned himself as the principal recipient, allegedly never disbursed the funds to the party structures that were expected to execute the alliance on the ground.

When party members confronted him, he initially claimed the money was given to him personally. Only under sustained pressure did he release a paltry N300,000 to each local government chairman and sums of N4,000,000 and above to a select group of close allies and those who threatened to petition the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). This is the conduct of a man who has the audacity to lecture Ogun State on institutional integrity.

*THE PREBENDALISM IRONY: POT CALLING THE KETTLE BLACK*

Dr. Sogunle’s article invokes the scholarly concept of prebendalism to attack Senator Solomon Adeola and the APC. We make no defence of the APC, but we note the profound hypocrisy. Prebendalism, as Richard Joseph defined it, describes a system where state offices are captured to sustain patron-client networks and procure electoral compliance. Is this not precisely what Dr. Sogunle himself represents?

He joined the Labour Party not out of ideological conviction but as a placeholder for a larger political transaction. He used our platform to negotiate an alliance that served his personal interests. He held onto a Labour Party membership while simultaneously serving as the Director-General of a rival party’s campaign. And he now writes eloquent treatises about “institutional architecture” while his own political career has been an exercise in institutional vandalism.

The proof of Dr. Sogunle’s true character lies not in his prose but in his practice. He is the very embodiment of the transactional politician he claims to despise.

*THE NATIONAL BODY MUST ACT*

The Labour Party, under the legitimate leadership of National Chairman Senator Nenadi Esther Usman, is a party of principle, built on the pillars of social justice, equity, and the dignity of labour. It is not a political hostel where aspirants lodge temporarily before checking into the highest bidder’s mansion. 

We therefore call on the National Working Committee of the Labour Party, under Senator Nenadi Usman, to immediately institute disciplinary proceedings against Dr. Kehinde Sogunle for anti-party activities. His continued claim to Labour Party membership while openly directing the campaign of another party’s gubernatorial candidate is a flagrant violation of our constitution and a betrayal of every member who shed sweat and resources to build this party in Ogun State.

The National body must also demand a full account of the funds that were deployed during the 2023 LP-PDP alliance. If Dr. Sogunle received money in the name of the Labour Party and failed to remit it, that is not merely an internal disciplinary matter; it is a matter for the anti-graft agencies.

*TO THE PEOPLE OF OGUN STATE*

We urge the good people of Ogun State to see Dr. Sogunle for what he is: a political merchant who trades in the currency of deception. His belated rediscovery of progressive politics, his sudden romance with institutional reform, and his theatrical denunciation of prebendalism are all part of a script written for the benefit of his current paymasters.

The Labour Party in Ogun State remains the authentic vehicle for the emancipation of the masses. Under the leadership of our State Chairman, Apagun Olaolu Samuel Babatunde, and the national leadership of Senator Nenadi Usman, we are rebuilding our structures, reconciling our ranks, and preparing to present a credible, people-centred alternative in 2027. We do not need the contaminated endorsements of political itinerants.

Dr. Sogunle may write as many articles as he wishes. He may quote scholars and invoke lofty concepts. But the people of Ogun State know the difference between a man who builds institutions and a man who plunders them. They know the difference between a committed progressive and a transactional politician.

The Labour Party stands with the former. Dr. Sogunle belongs to the latter.

Signed,

*Kika Glasgow*

Publicity Secretary, Ogun State Labour Party

October 6, 2026

OGUN STATE LABOUR PARTY: RE: REBUTTAL OF THE ILLEGITIMATE STATEMENT BY ALHAJI IBRAHIM ONABIYI – SETTING THE RECORDS STRAIGHT ON MY STATUS AND THE ILLEGALITY OF THEIR PARALLEL STRUCTURE

 PRESS STATEMENT BY THE OGUN STATE PUBLICITY SECRETARY OF THE LABOUR PARTY

(APAGUN OLAOLU SAMUEL BABATUNDE-LED STATE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE)

Date: July 17, 2026

RE: REBUTTAL OF THE ILLEGITIMATE STATEMENT BY ALHAJI IBRAHIM ONABIYI – SETTING THE RECORDS STRAIGHT ON MY STATUS AND THE ILLEGALITY OF THEIR PARALLEL STRUCTURE

Kika

Our attention has been drawn to the desperate and misleading press statement issued on July 16, 2026, by one Alhaji Ibrahim Onabiyi, who parades himself as Labour Party Chairman of Ogun State through a purely illegal and unconstitutional process. In that statement, they made several false claims, including the allegation that I, Hon. Kika Glasgow, am a member of the National Democratic Coalition (NDC) and therefore cannot serve as the Publicity Secretary of the Labour Party.

We categorically state that while I did resign from the Labour Party at a point and joined the NDC, I have since withdrawn my resignation, returned to the Labour Party, and have been fully reinstated as the duly elected Publicity Secretary of the Apagun Olaolu Samuel Babatunde-led Ogun State Executive Committee. I am no longer a member of the NDC – I am a bona fide, card-carrying member of the Labour Party. The opponents are clutching at a past event that has been rectified, in a vain attempt to distract from their own constitutional violations.

This statement serves to:

1. Set the records straight on my current status.

2. Expose the illegality of the so-called "harmonisation" that produced the Onabiyi faction.

3. Reiterate the supremacy of the Labour Party Constitution and the rule of law.

FACTS OF THE MATTER – MY STATUS CLARIFIED

1. I was duly elected as State Publicity Secretary at the authentic State Congress of the Labour Party in Ogun State held on April 25, 2026, where Apagun Olaolu Samuel Babatunde emerged as the valid State Chairman.

2. I later submitted a resignation letter and joined the NDC for personal reasons.

3. However, I withdrew that resignation and officially returned to the Labour Party. Following due process, I was reinstated as the State Publicity Secretary of the Apagun Olaolu Samuel Babatunde-led Executive Committee.

4. As of today, I am not a member of the NDC. I am a loyal and active member of the Labour Party, holding a validly elected position.

5. The allegation that I am currently a member of another party is false – it is a distortion of a past event that has been fully resolved.

The opponents  are resorting to cheap blackmail and fabrication to undermine our legitimate leadership.

THE SO-CALLED "HARMONISATION" – A KANGAROO EXERCISE

Mrs. Oriola Nike Job, the National Deputy Chairman (South), convened what she deceitfully called a "harmonisation meeting" only after she realised that Apagun Olaolu Samuel Babatunde had won the state congress fair and square.

This so-called harmonisation:

· Was never a congress – it was a mere gathering of a few handpicked individuals.

· Had no constitutional basis – the Labour Party Constitution does not recognise "harmonisation" as a substitute for a properly conducted State Congress.

· Was not advertised to all party members.

· Was not monitored by INEC.

· Produced a parallel executive that has no mandate from the Ogun State party members.

The truth is simple: Mrs. Oriola Nike Job did not like the outcome of the democratic process, so she decided to impose her preferred candidate, Alhaji Ibrahim Onabiyi, through the backdoor. This is a flagrant abuse of office and a direct assault on internal democracy.

THE LEGAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL POSITION – WHY THEIR STRUCTURE IS NULL AND VOID

1. Section 223 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) mandates that political parties shall conduct periodic elections for their executive committees on a democratic basis. The "harmonisation" exercise was not democratic – it was an imposition.

2. The Labour Party Constitution vests the authority to organise State Congresses in the duly elected State Executive Committees. No National Officer, including the National Deputy Chairman (South), has the power to bypass the State Executive and impose a parallel structure.

3. INEC's own portal still recognises Apagun Olaolu Samuel Babatunde as the State Chairman of the Labour Party in Ogun State. This is incontrovertible evidence that the Commission acknowledges our legitimacy and rejects the illegal parallel structure.

4. Judicial precedents – In the recent ADC case, the Court of Appeal affirmed that state congresses conducted in violation of party constitution and court orders are invalid, and that the responsibility for organising congresses rests with State Executives, not national leadership. The court also barred INEC from recognising such illegal congresses. Similarly, the Supreme Court in the PDP Ibadan Convention case nullified a convention held in violation of a court order, holding that such actions amount to making a mockery of the judiciary.

By all legal standards, the Onabiyi-led parallel structure is a nullity.

REBUTTAL OF SPECIFIC FALSE CLAIMS

False Claim Truth

"Glasgow Kika is a member of NDC and cannot be Publicity Secretary." I resigned and joined NDC temporarily, but I withdrew my resignation, returned to LP, and was reinstated. I am not currently a member of NDC.

"The harmonisation produced a legitimate State Executive." The harmonisation was an illegal imposition, not a congress. It violated the Party Constitution and INEC guidelines.

"Apagun Olaolu has no authority to suspend officials." That is correct – but we are not the ones suspending anyone. They are the ones who have no authority to even exist as an executive.

"INEC should disregard Apagun Olaolu." INEC's portal still recognises Apagun Olaolu as Chairman – the Commission knows the truth.

OUR DEMANDS AND WARNING

TO THE NATIONAL LEADERSHIP OF THE LABOUR PARTY AND MRS. ORIOLA NIKE JOB:

We demand that you:

1. Immediately withdraw recognition from the illegal Onabiyi parallel structure.

2. Publicly affirm Apagun Olaolu Samuel Babatunde as the authentic State Chairman of Ogun State.

3. Cease all interference in the affairs of the Ogun State chapter.

4. Direct INEC to release the access code to our legitimate State Executive to upload our candidates.

We put you on NOTICE that if these demands are not met within 7 days, we shall proceed to court.

TO ALHAJI IBRAHIM ONABIYI AND HIS COHORTS:

Your illegal occupation of party structures and your baseless allegations against me will not stand. You are merely trying to divert attention from your own constitutional violations.

We have reported your criminal impersonation and trespass to law enforcement agencies.

TO THE INDEPENDENT NATIONAL ELECTORAL COMMISSION (INEC):

We call on you to:

1. Uphold the Electoral Act and your own guidelines – do not recognise any candidate from the illegal parallel primaries.

2. Immediately release the access code to Apagun Olaolu Samuel Babatunde, the recognised State Chairman on your portal.

3. Note that your refusal to release the code is creating an unnecessary crisis and may expose you to litigation.

We are prepared to go to court.

CONCLUSION

The Labour Party belongs to its members, not to any individual. The will of the Ogun State party members, as expressed in the April 25, 2026 State Congress, must be respected.

Apagun Olaolu Samuel Babatunde is the valid State Chairman.

I, Hon. Kika Glasgow, am the valid State Publicity Secretary – currently and lawfully a member of the Labour Party.

The Onabiyi parallel structure is a nullity and should be disregarded by all.

We call on all party members, the media, and the general public to see through the desperate smokescreen of our opponents. The rule of law and internal democracy must prevail.

Signed:

Hon. Kika Glasgow

State Publicity Secretary,

Apagun Olaolu Samuel Babatunde-led Ogun State Executive Committee,

Labour Party

Date: July 17, 2026

Cc:

1. The National Chairman, Labour Party

2. The National Secretary, Labour Party

3. The Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)

4. The Resident Electoral Commissioner, Ogun State

5. The Nigeria Police Force

6. The Department of State Services (DSS)

7. All Media Houses