The gulf existing among the leading opposition parties may have widened following the collapse of the working alliance between the Labour Party and the Action Congress of Nigeria.

This is even as the LP is accusing Edo State governor Adams Oshiomhole of not helping its cause is anyway.
The disagreement between the two parties, it was gathered, has thrown the rank of Labour Party and ACN into disarray in Ondo, Ekiti and Edo states, where the two parties had a working understanding towards the April Elections.

Investigations revealed that the pact between the two parties broke down following failed attempts by the leadership of ACN to convince the only Labour Party governor, Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State to dump the party for ACN. Sources hinted Daily Sun that series of pressures were mounted on governor Mimiko to declare publicly for ACN but which he refused to do after which the ACN leadership told him that the two parties could no longer work together.

Accusing Oshiomhole of treachery, a party chieftain told Daily Sun that the Edo governor was at the head of the pressure group working for the Labour Party to dissolve into ACN, a mission the ACN leadership believed would be accomplished once Governor Mimiko declares for ACN. The refusal of governor Mimiko to leave Labour Party, sources hinted, angered the ACN leadership which then vowed to present candidates to contest against Labour Party in all the elections in the state.

Party sources told Daily Sun that it may have been the breakdown of the understanding that made the ACN to field a candidate for Ekiti Central in Ekiti State, against Ayodele Fayose, the Labour Party candidate contrary to an alleged earlier agreement on the basis of which the former governor work ed for the success of governor Kayode Fayemi during the re-run election in the State. Fayemi, meanwhile, had denied entering into an agreement to work for Fayose, saying he could only do that if Fayose was a member of the ACN.
In Edo state, LP officials say the state governor has abandoned the Labour Party, which produced him and is indeed working against the party in the state as both ACN and Labour Party are fielding candidates for all positions in the coming elections in the State.

Both Labour Party and ACN had signed a working agreement in November23, 2006, in which it was agreed that Oshiomhole, the Labour Party candidate, should run on the platform of the ACN, while other appointments were to be shared between the two parties. However, following the decision by governor Mimiko to remain in Labour Party, ACN leadership also decided that the Edo government should be for the ACN fully. It is alleged that it was against this background that Oshiomhole reconstituted the local government council in the state with the appointment of 18 Chairmen and 192 councilors without any member of Labour Party considered.

Also, Mimiko was said to have reported Oshiomhole to ACN leaders over alleged surreptitious moves to factionalize the party both at the national level and state levels. Labour Party had pointed to a group led by one Sam Omede claiming to be a parallel state executive in Edo state and which allegedly has the sympathy of Governor Oshiomhole

Sources said the Labour Party believed that the parallel executive was a creation of Oshiomhole’s who sent his Commissioner for Energy and Water Resources, a former State Secretary of Labour Party, Didi Adodo, to commission their secretariat on his behalf. When contacted, the Commissioner told Daily Sun it was his governor who asked him to commission the parallel party secretariat and that there was a disagreement between the governor and the Party in the state.

He explained that Labour Party has also been sponsoring candidates in the areas where the governor also has candidates on the platform of ACN and there was no way the governor could have kept quiet.
National Chairman of Labour Party, Chief Dan Nwayanwu would however not want to comment on the crisis between the two parties saying God is in control. When pressed further, he Said: “May God help anyone who wants to create an imaginary faction in the Labour Party, anywhere, including Edo state for whatever reason. God is greater than man, that is all I will say.”

Edo state Chairman of the Party, John Ogbeide explained that while it was true that both Labour Party and ACN have been working together, things have since changed and that Labour Party as entity was fielding candidates for positions except governorship that will be due in 2012.

He said it was unfortunate that the Labour Party could be at receiving end in Edo but that he remains the authentic state Chairman of the Executive and any other executive being facilitated by anyone is imaginary.