LP National Legal Adviser quits over admission of Daniel, Bamidele

The National Legal Adviser of the Labour Party, Isaac Abiodun Fashakin, has resigned from the office, citing the party’s inability to follow due process in dissolving the state executives to accommodate new members joining the party.
Specifically, Fashakin berated the party for dissolving state executives in Ogun and Ekiti States to pave the way for Ekiti Bibi Ire Coalition of a member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Opeyemi Bamidele, in Ekiti State, and a former Governor of Ogun State, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, to control the machinery of the party.
Fashakin said Bamidele’s acceptance into the party and the installation of Akin Omole as the interim chairman of the party and other executives in Ekiti State contravened the party’s constitution and that he could no longer continue to function as the party’s Legal Adviser in the face of such abrasive tendencies.
Briefing newsmen in Ado-Ekiti  on the recent happenings in the party, Fashakin said LP’s constitution is being flouted in Ekiti and Ogun States.
He said the party could have conducted a State Congress to elect the executive rather than imposing preferred candidates.
In his letter of resignation dated January 6, 2014 to the National Chairman of the Party, Dan Iwuanyanwu, Fasakin said: “LP is a party that could easily capture power if system is allowed to work in accordance with the constitution of the party without recurrent 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 of the Labour Party forthwith.”
Fasakin, who vied for Ekiti South District Senatorial seat on the platform of the party in the 2011 general election and lost to Chief Tony Adeniyi of the then Action Congress of Nigeria, said allowing Bamidele’s men to hijack the party in Ekiti State at the expense of the validly elected members would spell doom for the LP.
Fasakin, who hails from Ise Ekiti in Ise/Orun Local Government Area of Ekiti State, made allusion to the way Daniel had hijacked the party at the detriment of the party’s old members.
Fashakin 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 Gbenga Daniel and the party ignored my advice, which I cannot overlook.”
He said Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State and the national leaders of the party were aware of all the illegalities being conducted by the LP top hierarchy.