The Labour Party’s festering leadership battle erupted anew after ousted national chairman Julius Abure secured an interlocutory order from a Nasarawa State High Court directing the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to recognise his faction and upload its candidates for Saturday’s bye-elections.
Justice Mustapha A. Ramat’s July 23, 2025 ruling in Suit No. NSD/LF.84/2024 handed Abure and ally Umar Farouk Ibrahim sweeping powers — including control of access codes for both the August 16 nationwide bye-elections and the February 2026 FCT council polls. The case resumes September 22 after INEC failed to appear in court.
Senator Nenadi Usman’s interim leadership quickly hit back, branding the move “political mischief and legal desperation.” Media aide Ken Eluma Asogwa questioned the timing and noted the curious inclusion of next year’s elections, calling it a calculated ploy to unsettle the party on the eve of the polls.
The LP accused Abure of “forum shopping” by dragging a matter involving a federal agency before a state court, in defiance of the Supreme Court’s April 4, 2025 judgment that ousted him. Asogwa also linked the manoeuvre to Abure’s “notorious” record of forgery, citing the 2023 Ebonyi governorship controversy still under police probe.
Abure’s camp, however, hailed the Nasarawa ruling as a “restoration of legitimacy.”
National Publicity Secretary of the faction Obiora Ifoh accused INEC of “systematic exclusion” from Ondo to the current bye-elections and urged supporters to push ahead despite limited campaign time.
Former national treasurer Oluchi Opara dismissed the order as “a joke and a distraction,” stressing that state court recognition of Abure is “void” under the Supreme Court ruling and that INEC matters are the exclusive preserve of the Federal High Court.
The latest twist reflects a well-worn script in Nigerian politics — duelling court orders weaponised for factional supremacy.
With substantive hearings set for late September, the bye-elections will go ahead under a cloud of legal uncertainty, deepening Labour Party fractures ahead of 2027.
For now, Abure’s Nasarawa gambit appears less a knockout blow than another chapter in the LP’s high-stakes theatre of survival.
