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The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has reportedly omitted the Julius Abure faction of the Labour Party from the upcoming by-elections across the country.
According to Guardian, INEC, in its final list of nominated candidates for the forthcoming bye-elections, excluded all names submitted by the Abure-led group. The commission cited the Supreme Court judgment of April 4, 2025, which affirmed that Abure ceased to be National Chairman as of June 8, 2023, and declared that INEC did not monitor the faction’s primaries—making them invalid under the Electoral Act.
Reacting in a statement, National Publicity Secretary of the party, Obiora Ifoh, described the omission as unlawful, surprising and an abuse of power by the commission.
He stated that the Labour Party is aware of its rights as specified in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Electoral Acts 2022, as amended as regards to its powers to sponsor candidates in elections.
Ifoh stated that INEC lacks the power to either stop it from sponsoring candidates nor cherry-pick elections where it deems fit for the party to field candidates.
The statement said: “It is on record that no court in Nigeria, including the Supreme Court has derecognised the present leadership of the Labour Party. It is also a fact that the April 4, 2025, judgement of the Supreme Court ruled only on the lack of the jurisdiction of the lower court and Court of Appeal.
“The Supreme Court did not rule on the substantive matter as courts, including the Supreme Court is bared from entertaining cases on the internal matters of any political party.
“The Supreme Court in its wisdom ruled that parties should resolve its problems within the available mechanism as provided by its constitutions.”
Ifoh added that at no point did the Supreme Court empowered the electoral commission to interfere with the internal matters of the political party, adding that “INEC cannot stop political parties from fielding candidates in an election, provided the political parties abided by the requirement of the Electoral Acts.
“We are by this statement asking INEC to enlist our duly nominated candidates for the August 16 bye-election without further delay and also refrain from interfering with the internal matters of the Labour Party.
“INEC cannot arrogate to itself the powers of the courts or give different interpretation to a clear judgement of the apex court.
“The actions of the INEC if not redressed immediately will be challenged. The Labour Party as a responsible organisation will do everything within the law to ensure that all efforts by INEC to intimidate, harass and ridicule the Labour Party will be resisted.
“Labour Party has built reputation in the last 23 years as a party for the masses and we will not succumb to the renewed onslaught by some politicians using every available means to stultify our party’s progress.
“Labour Party is not for sale and any institution or commission making itself available to be used by politicians will have itself to be blamed.”
“It will indeed be catastrophic and a collosal loss of scarce monetary resources should INEC have its way.
“We are also calling on Nigerians, particularly, Labour Party members to remain vigilant and to keep praying for the nation that some day, the electoral process in Nigeria will be gotten right and that some persons will be made to take responsibilities for their actions and inactions while in office.
“We are also calling on all our candidates to remain calm as the party will do everything possible to ensure their names are uploaded for the the August 16, 2025 bye election and every other elections in the future,” the party added.
The post Abure’s Faction Kicks As INEC Excludes Labour Party From By-election appeared first on Naija News.
