₦airaland Forum

STATEMENT FROM THE LABOUR PARTY

Bye election: INEC omission of Labour Party unlawful, abuse of power

.... Party to Challenge INEC action, to ensure candidates names are uploaded

The leadership of the Labour Party has frowned at the omission by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC of its candidates for the August 16, 2025 bye election. The party describes the omission as unlawful, surprising and an abuse of power by the commission.

As a registered political party in Nigeria, Labour Party is very much aware of its rights as specified in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Electoral Acts 2022 as amended as regards to its powers to sponsor candidates in elections. The party is also aware that the INEC has no powers to either stop it from sponsoring candidates nor cherry pick elections where it deems fit for our party to field candidates.

It is on record that no court in Nigeria, including the Supreme Court has derecognised the present leadership of the Labour Party. It is also a fact that the April 4, 2025 judgement of the Supreme Court ruled only on the lack of the jurisdiction of the lower court and Court of Appeal. The Supreme Court did not rule on the substantive matter as courts, including the Supreme Court is bared from entertaining cases on the internal matters of any political party. The Supreme Court in its wisdom ruled that parties should resolve its problems within the available mechanism as provided by its constitutions.

At no point did the Supreme Court empowered INEC to interfere with the internal matters of the political party. INEC, being a regulatory body must limit itself to the provisions of the laws that instituted it. INEC cannot stop political parties from fielding candidates in an election, provided the political parties abided by the requirement of the Electoral Acts.

We are by this statement asking INEC to enlist our duly nominated candidates for the August 16 bye-election without further delay and also refrain from interfering with the internal matters of the Labour Party. INEC cannot arrogate to itself the powers of the courts or give different interpretation to a clear judgement of the apex court.

The actions of the INEC if not redressed immediately will be challenged. The Labour Party as a responsible organization will do everything within the law to ensure that all efforts by INEC to intimidate, harass and ridicule the Labour Party will be resisted.

Labour Party has built reputation in the last 23 years as a party for the masses and we will not succumb to the renewed onslaught by some politicians using every available means to stultify our party's progress. Labour Party is not for sale and any institution or commission making itself available to be used by politicians will have itself to be blamed.

We warn that it will be a waste of resources and precious time should INEC go ahead with the bye election without Labour Party in the ballot. It will indeed be catastrophic and a collosal loss of scarce monetary resources should INEC have its way.

We are also calling on Nigerians, particularly, Labour Party members to remain vigilant and to keep praying for the nation that some day, the electoral process in Nigeria will be gotten right and that some persons will be made to take responsibilities for their actions and inactions while in office.

We are also calling on all our candidates to remain calm as the party will do everything possible to ensure their names are uploaded for the the August 16, 2025 bye election and every other elections in the future.

SIGN

Obiora Ifoh
National Publicity Secretary
Labour Party

02/08/2025

Igirigimercenar:
Fergie001, what does this mean?

Does it mean that inec recognize peter obi faction of the labour party?

Penguin2:
INEC has recognized Nenadi Usman as the authentic chairperson of Labour Party based on Supreme Court judgment which is final.

INEC is also likely to accept candidates from Nenadi Usman supervised congress.

Peter Obi is now fully in charge of the Labour Party.

I was telling some Agbado people here but they chose rather to excite themselves in ignorance and I let them have fun.

Obi is coming!

Igirigimercenar:
Fergie001, what does this mean?

Does it mean that inec recognize peter obi faction of the labour party?

Penguin2:
INEC has recognized Nenadi Usman as the authentic chairperson of Labour Party based on Supreme Court judgment which is final.

INEC is also likely to accept candidates from Nenadi Usman supervised congress.

Peter Obi is now fully in charge of the Labour Party.

I was telling some Agbado people here but they chose rather to excite themselves in ignorance and I let them have fun.

Obi is coming!

Penguin2:
INEC has recognized Nenadi Usman as the authentic chairperson of Labour Party based on Supreme Court judgment which is final.

INEC is also likely to accept candidates from Nenadi Usman supervised congress.

Peter Obi is now fully in charge of the Labour Party.

I was telling some Agbado people here but they chose rather to excite themselves in ignorance and I let them have fun.

Obi is coming!

immaculatesense:
LIES.
INEC did not register any LP candidate because of the internal wranglings in the party. The same thing happened to APC in Rivers and Zamfara in 2019.

Show us proof that INEC has recognized the Nenadi faction and their candidates.
Show us the names of their candidates on INEC portal.
LIES.

Penguin2:
INEC has recognized Nenadi Usman as the authentic chairperson of Labour Party based on Supreme Court judgment which is final.

INEC is also likely to accept candidates from Nenadi Usman supervised congress.

Peter Obi is now fully in charge of the Labour Party.

I was telling some Agbado people here but they chose rather to excite themselves in ignorance and I let them have fun.

Obi is coming!

PigTormentor:
Don't mind them my brother, Obi is coming back to Agulu to retire after another loss in 2027.

fergie001:
INEC didn't recognise Peter Obi faction.

Like I stated earlier, Abure's tenure ended in March last year so INEC & NLC started the fight against Abure before Otti/Obi joined in. INEC is only saying Labour Party has no executive, hence no Primaries etc.

immaculatesense:
LIES.
INEC did not register any LP candidate because of the internal wranglings in the party. The same thing happened to APC in Rivers and Zamfara in 2019.

Show us proof that INEC has recognized the Nenadi faction and their candidates.
Show us the names of their candidates on INEC portal.
LIES.

Exousiang01:
They said the INEC is not empowered to interfere with the internal affairs of a party but they invite INEC for primaries which is internal.
Which means INEC has a say in the internal party affairs