A fresh leadership crisis has erupted in the Labour Party, deepening the rift within the camp aligned with former presidential candidate, Peter Obi, and Abia State Governor, Alex Otti, following the sack of the Senator Nenadi Usman–led interim National Working Committee by the party’s Board of Trustees and a quorum of the statutory National Executive Council.

The dissolution of the iNWC was disclosed in a leaked statement jointly signed by the party’s BoT Chairman, S.O. Ejiofor, and Secretary, Salisu Mohammed, respectively, dated December 2, 2025.

Ejiofor insisted that the decision was taken after months of “gross incompetence,” failure to organise congresses, and alleged acts capable of plunging the party into “irreparable oblivion” ahead of the 2027 general elections.

As part of the shake-up, the party leadership reappointed Prince Tony Akeni as acting National Publicity Secretary and Nwauwa Nnawuihie as acting National Secretary, pending the constitution of a fresh interim National Working Committee in line with the party’s constitution.

“The Board of Trustees and statutory National Executive Council quorum of the Labour Party of Nigeria stand by the dissolution of the Senator Nenadi Usman and Senator Darlington Nwokocha-led interim National Working Committee of the party as officially communicated to the dissolved committee in the party’s letter of December 3, 2025,” he said.

The statement traced the crisis to the September 4, 2024 appointment of the Nenadi committee in Umuahia, Abia State, with a 90-day mandate to conduct nationwide state congresses and a national convention in line with a 2018 consent judgment and an INEC-brokered settlement.

According to the party, the committee not only failed to meet the deadline but also failed to deliver after an additional 90-day extension granted on July 18, 2025, which expired on October 17, 2025 “without even a single ward congress achieved throughout the country.”

The leadership further accused the dissolved iNWC of presiding over a period in which the Labour Party was excluded by INEC from local government elections, by-elections and upcoming polls, leading to mass defections and organisational paralysis.

“During the same period under the sleepwalking leadership of the Usman-led committee, LP was brazenly excluded by INEC from participating in all local council elections, state and National Assembly by-elections throughout Nigeria during the outgoing year 2025,” the statement added.

However, the factional chairman swiftly rejected the dissolution, setting the stage for a renewed legal and political battle.

Reacting, Usman’s media aide, Ken Asogwa, dismissed the BoT action as unconstitutional and legally untenable.

“Dissolved by who? The BoT or the NLC? With all your experience covering political parties, have you seen where BoT dissolved a constituted National Working Committee of a political party before?” Asogwa asked.

He insisted that only the NEC and a National Convention have the powers to dissolve a National Working Committee.

“The only two organs of a political party, including the Labour Party, that have the capacity to dissolve a National Working Committee are the NEC and the National Convention,”he argued.

Asogwa also questioned the legitimacy of the letters announcing and retracting the dissolution, saying, “That is assuming without conceding that it’s coming from the BoT because there are two contradictory letters here.”

On claims that the crisis could be resolved internally, he said, “There’s nothing to resolve here. The people we have problems with are Julius Abure and his camp and the Supreme Court has finally resolved that matter in our favour.”

He maintained that Nenadi remains the authentic national chairman of the party.

“So, Nenadi remains the National Chairman of the Labour Party by reason of the NEC appointment and the Supreme Court judgment,” he said.

Similarly, the National Publicity Secretary of the Labour Party, Obiora Ifoh, dismissed the existence of factions and ridiculed the authority of the BoT behind the dissolution.

“My initial response is that you can’t place something on nothing. But in truth, we don’t have any faction,” Ifoh said, adding that the so-called BoT “has not been constituted” by the party.

“What you see playing out is the BoT that belongs to the Nigeria Labour Congress. The NLC has become a government organisation that now appoints a BoT for a political party,” he said.

When asked to respond to allegations that Abure loyalists had infiltrated and fuelled the crisis, Ifoh fired back:“How do we infiltrate them? Do we have the money that they have? The Labour Party is intact. We have only one leader.”

He added: “These guys (Nenadi and members of the BoT) are just distractions. So, we really do not have their time. They are amusing themselves and bastardising what democracy stands for.”

The factional spokesman described the latest development as vindication of their long-held position that the Nenadi-led arrangement was illegal and unsustainable, mocking the unfolding crisis as proof that the party’s troubles were self-inflicted. (PUNCH)

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