CSOs, Candidates, Supporters Protest at INEC for Excluding Labour at Bye-Election

ChuksOkocha in Abuja

A group of protesters made up of Civil Society Organisations, alongside candidates of the Julius Abure-led Labour Party (LP), have staged a peaceful protest to demand their inclusion in the forthcoming August 16th, 2025 bye-elections, scheduled to hold nationwide.

The protesting candidates were mainly those said to be excluded by INEC when it released the list of candidates for the off-seasons bye-elections.

The Labour Party has been plagued by leadership crisis between the Julius Abure faction and the Senator NenadiUsmangacrion

The protesters, who came in several buses stormed the National Headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), as early as 11:00am amid early morning rain to press home their demand.

Dozens of the protesters bore placards with inscriptions such as “INEC, who is using you against LP,” “Mahmood stop destroying democracy in Nigeria”, “Tell INEC to obey court orders”, among others.

Speaking on behalf of the protesters, the Labour Party Deputy National Youth Leader, Dr. Barry Avotu-Johnson said, “We are here to demand that the National Chairman of INEC, Prof. MahmoodYakubu should respect the Court Order recognizing Barr. Julius Abure as National Chairman of our great party.

“We are also demanding that he uploads the names of our validly nominated candidates for the forth coming bye-elections.

“This is not asking for too much. Justice and the respect for the rule of law which is the hallmark of democracy all over the world, Nigeria shouldn’t be an exception.”

Speaking, too, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), of the party, Mr. Peter Ugwu said, “We are here to demand for our right.

“We in the FCT conducted primaries and elected candidates for this election. Sadly, while the names of candidates of other political parties have been uploaded on the INEC portal, ours have not. INEC should correct this anomaly by doing the needful.”

On his part, Spokesperson for the CSOs, Mr. Peter Piper, said, “This is about democracy and the rule of law. An injury to one is an injury to all.”

In his response, INEC’s National Commissioner, AbdulahiZuru, who represented the Chairman, promised that the message of the protesters would be communicated to the leadership of the commission.