A major faction within the Labour Party (LP), known as the LP Candidates Forum, has launched a fresh protest, demanding the arrest of Julius Abure and pledging to occupy the headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for seven days.
The group, which supports Senator Nenadi Usman as the party’s rightful national chairman, has accused Abure of continuing to act as chairman illegally.
They insisted that INEC must remove his name from its portal and recognise Senator Usman, in line with a recent Supreme Court judgement.
The forum has called directly on the Inspector General of Police to arrest and prosecute Julius Abure and three other party officials.
The charges they are pushing for include serious criminal offences such as perjury (lying under oath), forgery, and criminal conspiracy. They claim that the Attorney General of the Federation has already authorised this prosecution.
In a statement obtained by SPEAR NEWS from the party’s former National Youth Leader, Comrade Eragbe Anselem, the faction alleged that Mr Abure, who is already facing these criminal charges, may have forged a new court order from an FCT High Court in Gwagwalada.
They believe this forged document was used to secure an invitation from INEC for a meeting on Tuesday, 14th October 2025. The forum has labelled INEC’s decision to invite Mr Abure as “illegal, unlawful, and an outright contempt” of the Supreme Court.
The root of the crisis lies in a ruling by the Supreme Court on 4th April 2025. According to the Nenadi faction, this judgement sacked Julius Abure and the party secretary, Umar Farouk Ibrahim, from their positions. The court reportedly dismissed earlier rulings from lower courts that had recognised Mr Abure, stating those courts lacked the jurisdiction to make such decisions because Mr Abure’s official tenure had already expired on 8th June 2024.
Furthermore, the forum pointed to a Federal High Court judgement from August 2025 which voided the national convention held in Nnewi in March 2024. The court found that the convention, which had kept Mr Abure in power, was illegal because it did not follow the party’s own constitution or national electoral laws, particularly the required conduct of party congresses.
The faction asserted that Senator Nenadi Usman was legitimately appointed as the new national chairman by the party’s National Executive Council (NEC) in September 2024, and then re-appointed in July 2025. They state this was the correct internal process to fill the vacancy left by Mr Abure’s expired term.
To force INEC’s hand, the forum has resolved to mobilise over 2,000 of its members to occupy the INEC headquarters in Abuja. They vow to maintain this protest for seven days, or until the commission agrees to upload Senator Nenadi Usman’s name as the authentic National Chairman of the Labour Party.
This protest threatens to plunge the Labour Party into further public disarray as it continues to grapple with a deep and bitter leadership crisis.
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