The Labour Party appears to be enmeshed in factional squabbles as the party’s Acting National Chairman, Senator Nenadi Usman, dismissed a purported 48-hour ultimatum issued to the party’s candidate at the 2023 presidential election, Peter Obi, to resign LP membership for joining the African Democratic Congress coalition.
In a statement on Thursday, spokesperson for the party, Obiora Ifoh, described members of the coalition, which on Wednesday, formally adopted the ADC, as the platform to challenge President Bola Tinubu’s re-election bid in 2027, as selfish power mongers.
Mr Ifoh said, “Former Presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Gregory Obi, has received a 48-hour ultimatum to formally resign his membership of the Labour Party having formally joined the coalition party.”
Stressing its lack of interest in joining the coalition, the party said, “the members of the coalition are power mongers whose only interest was self and not the people,” warning Nigerian that the, “often mouthed ‘new Nigeria is Possible’ is a ruse and cannot be achieved with the assemblage of old, recycled, desperate and frustrated politicians in the coalition.”
Mr Ifoh stated that, “all those who mismanaged Nigeria over the years are the ones that gathered themselves in the coalition, noting that “desperate politicians can’t birth new Nigeria.”
The party spokesperson also stated that the party was aware of nocturnal meetings between the former Anambra State governor and some members, to lobby them to join the ADC and that some of them had refused to defect with him.
He stated that, “Any of our members who is part of the coalition is given within 48 hours to formally resign his membership of the party. The Labour Party is not available for people with dual agenda, people with deceptive persona. The party will not avail itself to individuals who have one leg in one party and another leg elsewhere. People that in the morning, they will claim to be in the Labour Party and in the evening, they are in coalition.
However, Ms Usman, in a statement by her Senior Special Adviser, Media, Ken Asogwa, said that the party’s attention was drawn to misleading reports and commentaries suggesting that Mr Obi was issued a 48-hour ultimatum to resign from the party following his participation in ADC coalition.
The statement stated, “For the avoidance of doubt, the leadership of the Labour Party, on May 26, 2025, publicly declared its full support for Mr. Obi’s involvement in the coalition efforts aimed at creating a robust political alternative to rescue Nigeria from the disastrous misrule of the APC. That position has not changed. We wish to reaffirm that Mr. Peter Obi’s participation in the coalition activities, including the ADC unveiling, was done with the full knowledge, approval, and support of the Labour Party leadership.
“The individuals claiming to have issued an ultimatum to Mr. Obi are political jesters with no legitimate standing in the Labour Party. They are neither recognised by the party nor by the law, having long been sacked by the Supreme Court of Nigeria – the highest court in the land – and suspended from the party for their serial acts of indiscipline and anti-party activities.’’
It further stated that it was the remnants of the disorder and mess left behind by those it described as impostors that the current leadership under Ms Usman continued to clean.
It added, “Therefore, members of the public, and especially the media, are urged to disregard the distractions and mischief from these discredited elements. For clarity, the only legitimate and authoritative source of information regarding the official position of the Labour Party on any matter remains the office of Senator Nenadi Usman, Acting National Chairman of the Labour Party.’’
