Abure accuses Usman-led faction of twisting court ruling to mislead public

Factional Labour Party (LP) National Chairman, Julius Abure, has dismissed reports claiming that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) no longer acknowledges him as the party’s leader.

In a statement issued on Saturday by his faction’s spokesperson, Obiora Ifoh, Abure accused the Senator Nenadi Usman-led camp of deliberately twisting the meaning of a recent Federal High Court judgment to mislead the public.

According to him, the ruling delivered on 15 August 2025 was misrepresented to suggest that his tenure had ended.

“The Usman-led faction is only celebrating because they want the Labour Party to die,” Abure said.

The statement emphasized that the LP remains under Abure’s leadership and warned INEC not to allow itself to be used in schemes aimed at weakening the party ahead of elections.

READ ALSO: INEC must honour supreme court, Labour Party decisions – Abure-led faction

Abure further insisted that the Supreme Court has never removed him as chairman nor invalidated the party’s convention, noting that the court had only ruled that leadership disputes fall strictly within the party’s internal processes.

Ifoh, in his clarification, detailed the outcome of two suits decided the previous day, one filed by Usman’s camp and another by Abure.

He noted that both cases were dismissed, with the judge stressing that the Supreme Court’s April 4, 2025 ruling reaffirmed the right of political parties to handle their internal leadership matters.

The Abure-led faction accused Usman and her allies of celebrating “a smokescreen” by publishing INEC’s counter-affidavit, which, according to them, has repeatedly been dismissed in several courts, including the Supreme Court.

The group urged INEC to obey an earlier Nasarawa State High Court order of July 23, 2025, which directed the commission to recognise Abure and Umar Farouk Ibrahim as the authentic leaders of the LP pending the conclusion of ongoing cases.

According to the statement: “For the records, two cases concerning Labour Party were decided and dismissed yesterday by the same court.

“One by Nenadi Usman through one Chris Omofuma, her purported candidate in the Edo by-election and of course, the one filed by Labour Party through Barrister Julius Abure.

“INEC was the respondent in all the matters. While INEC for obvious reasons refused to put up any counter against Nenadi’s camp, it however, deposed to a counter affidavit in opposition to Abure’s suit, on the premise that it neither monitored nor recognised the March 27, 2024, convention in Nnewi, and that Abure’s tenure, along with that of the National Executive Committee, according to their illusions, expired in June 2024.

“The court wasted no time in dismissing the suit by Ms Nenadi Usman through Chris Omofume on the ground that both Nenadi Usman and Darlington Nwokocha were not National Chairman and National Secretary respectively, of the party and therefore are not competent to nominate candidate for the bye-election.

“The court also while dismissing the suit by Abure and Labour Party held that it lacked jurisdiction to entertain the matter, noting that the Supreme Court had, in its April 4, 2025, decision in Appeal No. SC/CV/56/2025, ruled on the supremacy of the party and its ability to resolve its internal affairs using the party’s internal mechanism.

“In any event, the Supreme Court never said that Abure was not the National Chairman of the Labour Party nor made pronouncement on the Convention. It only said that issues of leadership is an internal affairs of the party. It is also clear that the Abure leadership is the party here and that is what the apex court referred to.

“Disappointed by the judgement of the Court, Nenadi Usman and her power mongering renegades went to town publishing INEC’s counter-affidavit which the court never relied on.

“For us, their celebration was laughable and a smokescreen meant to mislead members of the public. They know that they have nothing to really celebrate.

“They forgot so soon that that INEC’s so called counter-affidavit has been tested in various courts, up to the Supreme Court and has not been accepted.

“The INEC counter affidavit is clearly what the commission has been portraying all through in the courts since the beginning of their unlawful exclusion of our leadership.

“They tendered it before Justice Omotosho and it was rejected, INEC also said so in Justice Nwite’s court and the Judge ruled against them.

“They said so in the court of Appeal, the court also ruled against them. Even the Supreme Court ruled against them.

“All those issues in the counter affidavit have been raised before and have been resolved against INEC. Even the Federal High Court yesterday did not accept their counter-affidavit, reason it refused to grant Nenadi’s request that her candidate be recognized to participate in the bye-election.

“It is therefore infantile for Nenadi to be circulating the same counter-affidavit as if it were a new document. Their celebration, to us amounts to nothing. It is quite unfortunate that they are celebrating that the Labour Party that gave them succor have no candidate, should that be what they should celebrate?

“Are they not playing into the hands of the opposition? Who benefits from all of this saga? Who is the loser? Are Peter Obi and Dr. Alex Otti not actually the losers in all of these?“Are they celebrating because they want the party to die. A party that gave them hope when they didn’t have any hope, a party that gave them the platform when they were frustrated by other political parties.

“We are also calling on INEC not to ignore the order by His Lordship, Hon Justice Mustapha A. Ramat of the Nasarawa state division delivered on July 23, 2025 in a SUIT NO. NSD/LF.84/2024 in an interlocutory order directing INEC to accord exclusive recognition to Abure and Umar Farouk Ibrahim as the authentic leadership of the Labour Party.

“The court also ordered that INEC must respect every decision arising from the leadership pending when the case before it is rested.

“We urge INEC not to disobey a lawful order of the Court. INEC must be informed of hushed comments of what appears to be a desperate and obvious collaborative efforts between it and some renegades in the Labour Party to undo the party and to preclude it from participating in future democratic process. We want to believe that if there is any element of truth in it, Nigerians must rise and defend this democracy.

“Finally, we call on our party members to be vigilant and remain peaceful in the face of all these provocation. We assure them that the party under the leadership of Abure is intact and that we will smile at the end of the day. We foresee an end to this crisis very soon because Labour Party will come out stronger and better.”