The Julius Abure-led faction of the Labour Party (LP) has alleged that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is working to derail democratic processes ahead of the August 16, 2025, bye-elections.
In a statement on Tuesday, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Mr Obiora Ifoh, claimed that the commission was plotting to bar LP candidates from participating in the polls, despite a Supreme Court ruling affirming Abure as the party’s legitimate national chairman.
Mr Ifoh revealed that the dispute had already been taken before a court. He warned that should INEC proceed with the election without publishing the names of LP candidates or including the party’s logo on the ballot paper, the party would seek to have the exercise nullified under existing legal provisions.
He appealed to well-meaning Nigerians to intervene and press INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, to uphold the Constitution and the Electoral Act, stressing that Section 29 of the Electoral Act 2022 empowers any excluded political party to pursue legal redress.
The LP accused INEC of “gambling with huge national resources” by conducting an election that could later be voided, and questioned whose interests the commission was serving by “plunging the country into needless crisis” and “wasting colossal sums of public funds.”
Referring to the Supreme Court ruling of April 4, 2025, the party maintained that matters relating to party leadership are strictly internal affairs. It recalled that its national convention, held on March 27, 2024, in Nnewi, produced the current leadership under Barrister Julius Abure.
“One wonders what the problem is with INEC,” the statement concluded.
