June 01, (THEWILL) – It is no longer news that the Labour Party, LP, is currently fractured. The factions within the party may continue to make news headlines until its stakeholders take concrete steps to enforce the Supreme Court ruling of April 4, 2025. “It is the media that is creating the factions by their reportage,” Special Media Adviser to Acting National Chairman of the party, Senator Nenadi Usman, Ken Asogwa told THEWILL, Friday.
“I need to fault the premise that there is an Abure faction. The truth of the matter is that the Supreme Court judgement is very clear. It ousted Julius Abure from his position as National Chairman of the party. The court removed him from the party. What the party leaders have done is to suspend him for six months, he said.”
The official disclosed that the party held its National Executive Committee, NEC, meeting on April 11, 2025, and Usman’s designation was changed, from Chairman of the Caretaker Committee to Acting National Chairman.
After her elevation, she set up a special investigation panel on May 7, headed by Senator Ireti Kingibe and charged it to, within three weeks “examine all allegations levelled against Abure, including alleged anti-party activities, misappropriation of party funds and recommend appropriate sanctions to be given to him.”
Contacted for response, a spokesperson for Abure, Abayomi Arabambi told THEWILL that the letter that convened the said NEC meeting was signed by Governor Alex Otti of Abia State and the presidential candidate of the party in the 2023 poll, Peter Obi, in clear violation of the party’s constitution.
He said, “According to our party’s constitution, it is the National Chairman and the National Secretary that can summon a NEC meeting,” he said.
When reminded that the apex court in its ruling, sacked Abure, who was the national chairman of the party, Arabambi said the import of the judgement was that “courts lacked jurisdiction over party matters. In any case, the Supreme Court in its judgement also did not appoint a new National Chairman.”
Furthermore, he said the party’s constitution recognised only the party’s National Chairman and state chairmen, an elected President on the party’s platform, elected state governor, elected President of the Senate, elected Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives as NEC members.
The decision to restrict the membership of the NEC was taken during the time of former National Chairman, Dan Nwanyanwu, who is now Chairman of Zenith Labour Party, Arabambi noted. “Even Section 22 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, does not recognise the position of Caretaker Committee. So, Obi, Otti, Usman and National Assembly members cannot constitute the NEC of the party,” he further stated.
According to him, the Abure-led faction ignored the other faction and worked on a new constitution for the party which it has submitted to the Independent National Electoral Committee, INEC. In the new constitution, the party clearly spells out the powers of the National Secretary, with regards to NEC and convention meetings of the party.
Henceforth, Arabambi said, the National Secretary, with the confirmation and approval of the National Chairman of the LP, is the only person that can call its NEC meeting and national convention. The party will have two publicity slots: National Publicity I and 2.
Reacting to this development, the spokesperson of Professor Mahood Yakubu, INEC National Chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi told this newspaper that INEC regularly receives correspondences from all stakeholders, which are duly acknowledged at the mail unit.
He said, “However, the fact that a letter or document was received means nothing. It does not confer any legitimacy or privilege on the person or group that submitted the letter or document.”
Nevertheless, Arabambi said the best way to resolve the LP’s seeming dilemma is for its leadership to borrow a leaf from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, whose leaders have had similar legal challenges over the position of its National Secretary, got a related Supreme Court verdict and came together to find a solution to the problem.
“INEC is waiting for us to do the needful, for both sides to reconcile. The PDP, in obedience to the Supreme Court ruling, has deferred appointment into the contentious position of the National Secretary. Rather than reconcile aggrieved members of the party some of our leaders are dividing the party, refusing to carry everybody along. All we want the leaders of the party to do is to call for a sort of family meeting as the PDP is doing to resolve their crisis.”
ABRIDGED VERSION OF SUPREME COURT JUDGEMENT
The Apex court judgement, now subject of interpretation by rival LP factions, was delivered by Justice Hamma Barka, who read the lead judgement.
Justice Barka held that the appellate court did not consider the two separate appeals filed by the appellants since they centred on party leadership, on which the court lacked jurisdiction to adjudicate. He said anything done outside jurisdiction amounted to a nullity.
He read, in part, “In this case, the court below, after recognising that the 1st respondent’s main relief was relief number five (5), based on the leadership of the 1st respondent and thus not justiciable, strayed beyond its jurisdiction into the realm where even the angels dread to tread to pronounce Barrister Julius Abure as the National Chairman of the 1st respondent.
“The law applicable here is as expressed in the Latin maxim: Nihil nonexpetant aedificare store, meaning that ‘one cannot put something on nothing and expect it to stand. The 1st respondent’s suit at the trial court had no legs to stand in the circumstances and deserves to be struck out…”
“In summary, both the trial court and the court below lacked jurisdiction to entertain the 1st respondent’s suit, whose main relief, as observed, was relief number five (5), treated as an appendage. As a result, the decisions of both the trial court and the court below, which recognised Barrister Julius Abure as the National Chairman of the 1st respondent, are set aside, and Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/1271/2024 is struck out for want of jurisdiction…
“Before I am done, may I admonish political parties and their members to endeavour to always allow their constitutions, rules, regulations and guidelines to guide them in choosing their officers as well as candidates. That way, incessant internal rifts which always find their way to court will be reduced. If the constitution of a politician has prescribed duration for tenure of office of an officer, such officer should be humble enough to exit at the expiration of the tenure.”
The litigants interpreted the judgement differently. For Abure, the judgement did not remove him from office. It merely held that the courts lacked jurisdiction to interfere in internal party matters, thus striking out both Senator Usman’s appeal and LP’s original suit.
The party’s National Legal Adviser, Mr. Kehinde Edun, said the apex court had clarified that courts should not decide on political party leadership matters, thus validating the convention that elected Abure and the current NEC, whose tenure he maintained was still in effect.
Erstwhile Chairman of the Caretaker Committee, Usman said, “The recent ruling by the Supreme Court, which allowed the appeal filed by Senator Nenadi Usman, declaring it meritorious, while dismissing the cross-appeal filed by the Abure faction of the Labour Party as unmeritorious, is a victory for the rule of law and a significant milestone for our democracy.” 10 days after she was appointed Acting National Chairman of the party by its NEC.
ENTER OBI
In the midst of this unresolved crisis, Obi, who last week disclosed that he would contest the 2027 General Election on the platform of the LP, is also at a crossroads, just like the party. He has three issues to contend with, according to investigation.
The first issue is the intra-party perception trailing his alleged single-handed involvement in coalition talks with the opposition, planning to give President Bola Tinubu a run for his money in 2027. Additionally, there is the reaction following his coalition talks and moreover, the stand of the largely non-partisan ‘Obidient Movement’ on all of these issues.
Finally, there is the influence of the zoning formula along the North/South dichotomy on his decisions.
In sequence and order, Obi’s involvement in the coalition talks has polarised the party and the ‘Obidient Movement,’ into naysayers and supporters, thus opening his leadership at a time of party crisis to critical questioning from within.
According to Arabambi, echoing an earlier statement by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Obiora Ifo, who said that the party would not support any coalition involving former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, ex-Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai and that no aspirant, including Obi and Otti, would be granted an automatic ticket for the 2027 Presidential Election, Obi’s participation in coalition talks is dividing the party further.
“This party has been in existence for the past 25 years and people should remember that it had also had high-profile personalities like ex-governor Segun Mimiko of Ondo State and Senator Ovie Omo-Agege before he defected to the APC. Obi did not discuss his decision with the hierarchy of the party. We read about it on the pages of newspapers which was quite embarrassing, particularly after he had said he would be running on the party’s platform in the 2027 election.”
For Senator Nenadi Usman, Obi’s involvement in the opposition coalition is in line with leadership of the party she heads as acting National Chairman. Her Media Adviser, Asogwa, said Obi’s participation in coalition talks received the blessings of the party and remains his decision, even if the talks fail to materialise.
“Even if the talks fail to reach a consensus, Obi has the right to seek election on the platform of the party,” he insisted.
When asked if the party gave Obi some proposals to guide his participation at the talks, Asogwa replied that though he was unauthorised to speak on it, he could only guess that such talks entailed give and take.
“All I can tell you is that he is authorised to participate in the talks. We formally approved Obi’s involvement in the ongoing patriotic efforts to rescue Nigeria from the current administration.”
Earlier, Asogwa had questioned the Abure-led NWC of misleading the public about its status and right to speak for the party. “It is curious that individuals who were suspended for anti-party activities are now questioning a move rooted in the national interest. Whose interest is Julius Abure really serving? Is he denying that Nigeria is in crisis and that unified action is needed? His actions suggest an agenda contrary to what the Labour Party and Obi stand for.”
Members of the ‘Obidient Movement’ are said to be in support of Obi’s participation in the coalition talks so long as he does not accept anything less than the position of presidential candidate or else they will vote with their feet against him.
National Coordinator of the movement, Tanko Yinusa told this newspaper that their concern in agreeing to Obi’s participation is that “Nigeria is in a quagmire and the discussions is how to get the country out of its dire straits. As far as we are concerned that is the position on the table.”
He said Obi remains in the Labour Party and has not done anything to warrant statements of disapproval of his candidacy on its platform.
Debunking reports that the coalition had debated and offered Obi a Vice-Presidential position for one term in an envisaged Atiku Abubakar presidency, Yinusa said, “There is no such discussion. People are flying kites, as far as we are concerned. If there will be such a deal we will consider it and make our position public.”
Asogwa said there is no such thing. “Obi and Atiku have debunked it, he quipped.
The influence of the North/South dichotomy revolves round the view that any presidential aspirant from the South who fails to take the presidency in 2027 would have to endure a tortuous, almost endless wait for 12 years should President Tinubu get re-elected in 2027 for another 4 year-term to complete the tenure of the South region in 2031. Even Obi left a hint in his recent statement that if he fails to run in 2027, he may not run again.
“I believe we should have a retirement age for politicians. By 2027, I will be 65. If the presidency goes back to the North in 2031, it may not return to the South until 2039 — by then, I will be 77. I wouldn’t want to run for office at that age. It would make a mess of everything,” he said last Monday.
So, he must make hay while the sun shines. Seeking a platform, forming an opposition and joining coalition talks are almost like an endgame for him now, which, during his pursuit, would continue to impact interests and alliances.
WAY FORWARD
Asogwa said the Labour Party under the acting chairmanship of Senator Nenadi Usman is forging ahead to reposition the party. It has got NEC’s approval to begin registration and validation of new members within 90 days. “The target is 10 million Nigerians,” he disclosed.
Interestingly, a dependable source in the Abure-led NWC disclosed that in the event of the party being unable to address the prolonged leadership crisis, it will move on with its plans for 2027. According to him, the party has concluded plans to draft Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director General of the World Trade Organisation, WTO, as its presidential candidate in 2027.
“We have sent an emissary to her and she has told us she needed to make wider consultations and get back to us.”
Reminded that she had just won re-election as WTO DG, he replied that, “President of Nigeria is more important than being a DG of WTO.”
Also reminded that Okonjo-Iweala is an admirer of Obi and she may reject an offer that will hurt their relationship, he quipped, “A party is an institution. We have had high ranking senators and past governors on our platform before. Even if she refuses the offer, she will at least know that Nigerians who want the best for their country are thinking of her as a potential saviour.” But he agreed with Arabambi’s submission that the party’s stakeholders will have to sink their differences and agree to unite under a common purpose for the party to stop drifting and “becoming easy targets for divisive forces from within and without.
Amos Esele is the Editor of THEWILL Newspaper. He has over two decades of experience on the job.
