A group of protesters made up of Civil Society Organizations in alongside candidates of the Julius Abure-led Labour Party (LP), for the August 16th, 2025 bye-elections, scheduled to hold nationwide, have staged a peaceful protest to demand their inclusion in the forthcoming polls.
The protesters who came in several buses stormed the National Headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), as early as 11:00am amidst early morning rain on Wednesday, to press home their demand.
Dozens of the protesters carrying placards with inscriptions such as: “INEC, who is using you against LP,” “Mahmood stop destroying democracy in Nigeria”, “Tell INEC to obey court orders”, among others.
Speaking on behalf of the protesters, the Labour Party Deputy National Youth Leader, Dr. Barry Avotu-Johnson said, “We are here to demand that the National Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu should respect the Court Order recognizing Barr. Julius Abure as National Chairman of our great party.
“We are also demanding that he uploads the names of our validly nominated candidates for the forth coming bye-elections.
“This is not asking for too much. Justice and the respect for the rule of law which is the hallmark of democracy all over the world, Nigeria shouldn’t be an exception.”
Speaking in a similar vein, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), of the party, Mr. Peter Ugwu said, “We are here to demand for our right.
“We in the FCT conducted primaries and elected candidates for this election. Sadly, while the names of candidates of other political parties have been uploaded on the INEC portal, ours have not. INEC should correct this anomaly by doing the needful.”
On his part, Spokesperson for the CSOs, Mr. Peter Piper said, “This is about democracy and the rule of law. An injury to one is an injury to all.”
In his response, INEC’s National Commissioner who represented the Chairman, Abdulahi Zuru promised that the message of the protesters will be communicated to the leadership of the commission.
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