The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has invalidated the list of candidates submitted by the Julius Abure-led faction of the Labour Party (LP), ahead of the August 16, 2025, by-elections and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) council polls. INEC also disqualified all candidates submitted by the Social Democratic Party (SDP).<\/p>\n
This decision signals a significant shift in the party’s internal power struggle, effectively derecognizing the Abure faction. INEC\u2019s published final list of approved candidates omitted every name presented by Abure\u2019s camp and the SDP, citing legal noncompliance and internal irregularities.<\/p>\n
INEC\u2019s stance was praised by the Senator Nenadi Usman-led<\/strong> faction, which described the decision as consistent with the April 4, 2025<\/strong> Supreme Court judgment affirming Usman\u2019s leadership. According to her media aide, Ken Asogwa, the Commission is finally aligning with legal directives and should formally recognize Usman as Labour Party’s legitimate national chairperson.<\/p>\n In contrast, Abure\u2019s group slammed INEC\u2019s move as unconstitutional. Speaking to THISDAY<\/em>, faction spokesperson Obiora Ifoh<\/strong> argued that the Commission lacked the legal power to interfere in internal party affairs or reject candidates without court authorization. He emphasized that the Supreme Court had not ruled against Abure\u2019s leadership but rather urged internal resolution mechanisms for party disputes.<\/p>\n Despite these claims, INEC has consistently maintained that Abure\u2019s tenure ended in June 2023. The Commission further noted that none of Abure\u2019s primary elections were monitored\u2014a mandatory step for validating candidate nominations under Nigerian electoral law.<\/p>\n Former LP treasurer Oluchi Opara<\/strong> added that the Supreme Court ruling indirectly confirmed that Abure and his National Working Committee (NWC) no longer have the legal mandate to act on behalf of the party. She applauded INEC for defending electoral credibility and urged Abure to step back and respect institutional rulings.<\/p>\n With the party now reorganized under Senator Usman\u2019s leadership, INEC\u2019s enforcement appears aimed at protecting the rule of law and democratic integrity ahead of critical elections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has invalidated the list of candidates submitted by the Julius Abure-led faction of the Labour Party (LP), ahead of the August 16, 2025, by-elections and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) council polls. INEC also disqualified all candidates submitted by the Social Democratic Party (SDP). This decision signals a significant […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5253,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[35,36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shakamomodu.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8230"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shakamomodu.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shakamomodu.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shakamomodu.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shakamomodu.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8230"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/shakamomodu.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8233,"href":"https:\/\/shakamomodu.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8230\/revisions\/8233"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shakamomodu.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shakamomodu.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shakamomodu.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shakamomodu.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}