INEC Should End Labour Party’s Crisis

With two Labour Party candidates emerging for the Edo Central senatorial district by-election this month, it is puzzling that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has yet to determine which faction between Julius Abure and Nenadi Usman is the legitimate one, Davidson  Iriekpen  writes 

The Edo Central senatorial district by-election scheduled to hold later this month has again thrown up the question about which of the factions of the Labour Party (LP) candidates is the legitimate that should produce the party’s candidate. Is it the Julius Abure faction or Nenadi Usman’s faction?

While Paul Okojie emerged from the Abure’s faction, Chris Omofoma is from the Usman’s faction.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has been seemingly quiet on the candidates’ legitimacy since the Supreme Court purportedly sacked Abure. Its silence has done nothing to clear the confusion. Instead, it has fuelled it.

With the 2027 general elections still two years away, the commission is alleged to be colluding with the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to give the party an undue advantage by aiding the ongoing attempts by the aggrieved leaders of the opposition parties to destabilise them.

Since the 2023 general election, the Labour Party has been enmeshed in a prolonged internal crisis that is tearing it apart.

Ironically, it was INEC that started the crisis.

Recall that upon the expiration of Abure’s tenure as national chairman of the party, he organised a national convention in Nnewi, Anambra State, without the commission’s presence, Abure’s faction had insisted that it had complied with the law by notifying the electoral umpire.

But INEC declined to monitor or recognise the said convention because, according to it, it was not conducted in line with the party’s constitution.

The commission subsequently failed to recognise Abure as the national chairman of the party, claiming that his tenure had expired.

This led the embattled national chairman to institute an action at the Federal High Court in Abuja against the commission, seeking judicial affirmation of his chairmanship. The court later recognised his leadership of the party.

INEC appealed the judgment. But while the appeal was pending, Governor Alex Otti of Abia State; the presidential candidate of the party in the 2023 general election, Mr. Peter Obi;  his running mate Datti Baba-Ahmed and other members of the National Executive Committee (NEC) convened a meeting in Umuahia on September 4, 2024, where they sacked the entire Abure-led NWC.

They also appointed Nenadi Usman, a former Minister of Finance and ex-senator representing Kaduna South, to lead a 29-member caretaker committee and facilitate the election of a new party leadership within 90 days.

On January 17, 2025, the Court of Appeal ruled that its earlier decision in November 2024, recognising Abure as the party’s chairman, remained valid and had not been overturned by any court. 

Usman vehemently faulted the decision and challenged it at the Supreme Court. While the appeal was pending at the apex court, Abure filed a cross-appeal.

In its judgment on April 4, 2025, the Supreme Court found Usman’s appeal meritorious and overturned the concurrent judgments of the Court of Appeal that recognised Abure as the national chairman of the party.

The apex court also dismissed Abure’s cross-appeal seeking affirmation as national chairman. It held that the Appeal Court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the case, being an issue of internal affairs of the party.

It resolved three issues submitted for determination in favour of Usman, and held that both the trial court and the Appeal Court had no jurisdiction to entertain the suit of the first respondent.

It urged political parties to respect their constitutions and internal processes, and implored officials whose tenures had expired to vacate their positions.

But the apex court’s verdict was subjected to different interpretations.

While Abure is contending that he was not removed from office, Usman argued that Abure had been sacked.

While they were still contending, a factional leader of the party, Lamidi Apapa, surfaced to lay claim to the party’s leadership.

But in a move to clarify the leadership situation, a delegation of the party led by Governor Otti and Obi visited INEC headquarters in Abuja on April 9. During the visit, Otti submitted a Certified True Copy of the Supreme Court’s judgment to the electoral body. The visit was aimed at providing clarity on the party’s leadership and ensuring effective communication with INEC.

The delegation was received by the INEC National Commissioner, Sam Olumekun, and other senior officials of the commission who reaffirmed the commission’s commitment to neutrality, transparency, and the rule of law in carrying out its responsibilities.

But since that visit, INEC has yet to make its official position public, fuelling speculations that it is aiding to destabilise the party for the benefit of the ruling APC.

So bad is the situation that the LP candidates for the recently concluded local government elections in Lagos were thrown into confusion over which of the three factions of the party in the state is authentic.

While reacting to enquiries in May on why it has not taken a position on the leadership crisis in the party, the Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi, in a statement noted that the commission was carefully studying the verdict and would communicate its decision to the public in due course.

The questions bothering many observers now are: How long would it take INEC to study the Supreme Court judgment and make its position known to the public?

Was the commission’s recent recognition of George Moghalu as the party’s governorship candidate for the Anambra State election slated for November 8, 2025, a validation of Abure’s leadership by the commission?

In the party’s primary conducted by Abure’s faction on April 5 at Finotel Hotel, Awka, Moghalu defeated John Nwosu, by polling 573 votes, out of 601 accredited votes.

But in a parallel primary election conducted by the Obi and Otti-backed faction of the LP, a sitting member of the Anambra State House of Assembly representing Onitsha South Two, Jude Umenajiego, polled 180 votes, to defeat John Nwosu, who polled 69 votes.

In a dramatic twist, INEC recently recognised Moghalu as the authentic candidate.

The protracted crisis in the Labour Party is evidence of the failure of the commission to guide, advise and regulate the parties. Its perceived failure to be firm is viewed as a deliberate effort to weaken opposition parties.

How can it allow factions to tear the party apart to the advantage of the ruling of the APC, whilst it stands by to watch? It is high time it spoke up.

Nigeria’s democracy cannot thrive in an atmosphere of chaos and institutional compromise. This is why INEC must at all times uphold its constitutional responsibility as an impartial electoral umpire by recognising the proper structure within political parties and facilitating the emergence of a legitimate leadership through legitimate processes.