The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has recognised the Labour Party (LP) National Working Committee (NWC) led by Nenadi Usman, following a court order directing the electoral body to do so.
Checks on the INEC website on Friday confirmed that Usman has been listed as the chairperson of the party’s caretaker committee. Other members of the NWC include Senator Darlington Nwokocha (National Secretary), Hamisu Santuraki (National Treasurer), Aisha Madije (National Financial Secretary), and Eric Ifere (National Legal Adviser).
The development has further intensified the leadership crisis within the Labour Party, one of Nigeria’s major opposition parties.
On January 21, the Federal High Court in Abuja recognised the Usman-led NWC and removed Julius Abure as the party’s national chairman. Justice Peter Lifu based his ruling on a Supreme Court judgment that affirmed Nenadi Usman as the authentic leader of the Labour Party.
Justice Lifu ordered INEC to recognise the Usman-led NWC as the party’s legally constituted authority pending the conduct of its next national convention. He held that evidence before the court showed that Abure’s tenure as national chairman had elapsed.
Although the judge described the dispute as a non-justiciable internal party matter, he ruled that the establishment of a caretaker committee was “a necessity” arising from the Supreme Court’s earlier decision.
In response, the Abure-led faction of the party rejected the ruling and vowed to appeal. The group’s spokesman, Obiorah Ifoh, argued that the judgment contradicted the Supreme Court’s position that courts lack the power to appoint leadership for political parties.
“The judgment clearly contradicts the Supreme Court’s ruling, which stated that leadership issues are internal affairs of political parties,” Ifoh said, adding that the Court of Appeal had previously affirmed Abure’s NWC as the party’s authentic leadership.
The leadership crisis in the Labour Party dates back to the aftermath of the 2023 general elections, in which the party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, secured over six million votes.
Ahead of the 2027 elections, Obi defected to the African Democratic Congress (ADC), while the Labour Party appointed Abia State Governor Alex Otti as its national leader.
