Eshioromeh Sebastian in Abuja
The crisis rocking the Labour Party (LP) took a fresh twist on Monday as the party’s State Chairmen Forum rejected a fresh congress plan initiated by the Senator Nenadi Usman-led Caretaker Committee, urging the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to impose stiff sanctions on the committee.
The forum, which comprises all state chairmen elected during the party’s congresses on December 6, 2025, described the move by Usman as a violation of the party’s constitution and a disregard for extant electoral laws.
In a statement issued on Monday, the National Publicity Secretary of the Labour Party, Obiora Ifoh, reiterated that Senator Nenadi Usman is not a member of the party, accusing her of naivety and constitutional ignorance in her correspondence with INEC.
The state chairmen specifically called on INEC to jettison a memo from the Caretaker Committee seeking to conduct fresh congresses from March 26, 2026.
According to the party, the notice runs contrary to INEC’s earlier warning to Usman that her committee lacks the authority to act on behalf of the party.
The statement recalled that INEC had on February 16, 2025, denied the Usman-led committee’s request to conduct congresses, stressing that a Caretaker Committee cannot unilaterally dissolve duly elected executives.
“It is only NEC that is empowered by the party constitution to fix date, time and make rules for the conduct of congresses.
“Secondly, state, local government and ward executives have a four-year tenure. Notice for another congress cannot be valid under the Labour Party constitution when the tenure of those elected in December 2025 still subsists,” Ifoh stated.
Describing the fresh March 3 memo by Usman as “dead on arrival,” the party insisted that the attempt to initiate a new congress was unlawful and an aberration.
“It is not only unlawful but also an aberration that a caretaker committee will seek to summarily dismiss a duly elected executive of a political party and in turn unilaterally appoint a caretaker committee in their stead. Nigeria is not a lawless nation,” the statement added.
The state chairmen have also urged INEC to consider designating an officer from the commission to run the affairs of the Labour Party, pending the resolution of the leadership dispute.
They called on the electoral body to uphold the party’s constitution and sanction Senator Nenadi Usman and her group for actions they described as a threat to internal democracy.
The Labour Party leadership, the statement noted, has already appealed a controversial Federal High Court judgment, as it continues to battle what it describes as attempts to undermine its constitutionally recognised structures.
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