•Abure, Otti, Obi and Nenadi
The protracted leadership crisis in the Labour Party (LP) deepened today as the two opposing parties summoned separate National Executive Council (NEC) meetings on the way forward after last Friday’s Supreme Court judgement on the matter.
While the Barrister Julius Abure-led party leadership has summoned a NEC meeting currently ongoing in Abuja at the party’s national secretariat, the Mr Peter Obi/Governor Alex Otti-led stakeholders have scheduled theirs for Wednesday, April 9 in Abuja. The Obi/Otti group under the Caretaker Team is led by Senator Nenadi Usman, reports Daily Trust.
The Obi/Otti meeting notice was contained in a statement today signed by the spokesperson of the Peter Obi Media Reach (POMR), Ibrahim Umar.
“The two leading figures of the LP, the 2023 Presidential flag bearer Peter Obi and the sole state governor of the party, Dr Alex Oti of Abia State, have summoned the NEC of the party in Abuja on Wednesday,y, April 9, 2025,” Umar said.
The statement said that the NEC meeting shall be followed concurrently by an interactive TownHall Engagement with major stakeholders and other organs of the party at Transcorp Hotel.
He said, “The stakeholders listed to attend the meeting include the Vice Presidential candidate for the 2023 election (Senator Datti Baba Ahmed), serving and former senators and senatorial candidates of LP in the 2023 election, serving and former members of House of Representatives and LP candidates in 2023 election, all members of the National Caretaker Committee (NTC), all former governors candidates who are still in the party, representatives of NLC/TUC Political Commission, all members of the former LP National Working Committee (NWC).”
He said that the meeting is in furtherance of the Supreme Court ruling last week terminating the Julius Abure-led NWC.
The nation’s Apex Court on Friday ruled on the leadership crisis rocking the party.
It was earlier reported that the Supreme Court has set aside the judgment of the Court of Appeal in Abuja recognising Julius Abure as the National Chairman of the LP.
In a unanimous judgment, a five-member panel of the apex court held that the Court of Appeal lacked the jurisdiction to have pronounced Abure National Chairman of the LP having earlier found that the substance of the case was about the party’s leadership.
It held that issue of leadership was internal affair of a party over which courts lacked jurisdiction and noted that Abure’s tenure had since expired.
The court allowed the appeal filed by Senator Ester Nenadi Usman and one other and held that it was meritorious, before subsequently proceeding to dismiss the cross-appeal filed by the Abure faction of the LP for being unmeritorious.
However, in a swift reaction, Abure said that the Supreme Court insists that the lower courts should have declined jurisdiction and shouldn’t have made pronouncement on the leadership of a political party and therefore struck out Senator Nenadi Usman’s appeal at the Appeal Court and the LP suit at the trial court.
The two feuding parties shortly after the Supreme Court ruling, interpreted the judgement as favouring their sides of the divide on who is the authentic leader of the LP.
A communique which is expected of the ongoing Abure-led NEC meeting may approve the suspension of Obi and Governor Alex Otti for anti-party activities, having already said that Senator Nenadi Usman is inconsequential as she was never a member of the Labour Party.
