The Labour Party National Chairman, Julius Abure, on Friday presided over a contentious National Executive Council (NEC) meeting at the party’s Abuja headquarters, with officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and former vice-presidential candidate Datti Baba-Ahmed in attendance.
The meeting took place amid intensifying disputes surrounding the party’s controversial 2024 national convention held in Nnewi, Anambra State—a gathering that reaffirmed Abure as chairman but sparked a wave of internal conflicts, litigations, and rival factions.
High-profile figures such as the 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, and Abia State Governor, Alex Otti, openly rejected the Nnewi outcome.
In July 2024, Obi, Otti and several senior party leaders disowned the Nnewi convention and set up a 29-member caretaker committee led by former minister Namadi Usman.
The committee was tasked with producing inclusive congresses and organising a fresh national convention—moves that further entrenched the party’s leadership crisis.
Speaking after Friday’s NEC session, Abure said the council relied heavily on recent Supreme Court pronouncements that internal party leadership matters are non-justiciable.
According to him, the NEC is constitutionally empowered to manage party affairs in the period between national conventions and to fill vacancies when necessary.
Following its review of the Nnewi convention and the disputes arising from it, the NEC reaffirmed the list of national officers elected on March 27, 2024, in Anambra State—retaining Abure as National Chairman and Umar Farouk Ibrahim as National Secretary, among others.
The council also approved the filling of several vacant positions, authorised the chairman and secretary to convene a special national convention if required, and ratified preparations for ward, local government, and state congresses nationwide.
INEC was represented at the meeting by officials from its Litigation and Election and Party Monitoring (EPM) departments, led by Mrs. Rakiya Dattijo.
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