The battle for control of the Labour Party between the Julius Abure-led National Working Committee and the Nenadi Usman Caretaker Committee resurfaced on Thursday after the former openly announced that there is no vacancy in the party leadership.
Abure also cautioned Abia State Governor Alex Otti and the LP’s presidential candidate in the 2023 election, Peter Obi, to obey the Supreme Court decision.
At a media briefing in Abuja, Abure addressed through Obiora Ifoh, the LP National Publicity Secretary.
He said, “The position of the Labour Party after critically reviewing the Supreme Court judgement delivered on the 4th of April 2025 stated as follows: the Supreme Court, contrary to speculations, actually reaffirmed the National Convention of the party held on the 27th of March 2024 at Nnewi.
“The reason for the non-justiciability of internal disputes of a political party is simple, and in the eyes of the law, a political party is a corporate entity with its constitution, rules, regulations, and guidelines which are binding on members who had joined freely and have consented to be so bound (see Abegunde vs Ondo State House of Assembly & Ors. (2015) LPELR-24588 (SC).
“Consequently, we admonished Alex Otti, the Governor of Abia State, and Peter Obi, former presidential candidate of our party in the 2023 general election, who are the protagonists of the current division in the party, to hear the Supreme Court loud and clear.”
Continuing, Abure emphasised that prior to the disputed national convention, the Labour Party had met all legal requirements as outlined in the LP Constitution, Electoral Act, and 1999 Constitution.
According to him, people who claim their term has expired have most likely misread the judgement.
“The Supreme Court admonished party members to respect the Constitution of their party when it stated thus: Political parties have put in place diverse kinds of internal dispute resolution mechanisms to handle any matter arising from disputes among members.
“Political parties and their members should, therefore, have faith in the internal dispute resolution mechanisms prescribed in their party constitution,” he urged.
Abure’s press conference comes two weeks after Obi and Otti’s supporters presented the 48-page Certified True Copy of the Supreme Court judgement at a parallel meeting of the LP National Executive Committee with several stakeholders in Abuja.
Otti announced that the document had put an end to the debate over misinterpretation of the verdict.
