…Abure-led NWC gives 48-hour resignation ultimatum to Obi
The factional groups in the Labour Party (LP) have resumed their war of words, barely 24 hours after the party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi, joined the coalition of politicians adopting the African Democratic Congress (ADC) as a platform to contest against President Bola Tinubu in 2027.
While the National Caretaker Committee (NCC) of the party, led by former Minister of Finance, Senator Nenadi Usman, wholly backed Obi’s decision to join the ADC, the National Working Committee (NWC) under the leadership of the National Chairman, Mr Julius Abure, gave Obi a 48-hour ultimatum to resign from the LP.
Each of the camps, keeping with their recent trends, insisted they remained the authentic leadership of the party.
The Abure group, which was the first to react to Obi’s decision on Thursday, said that by joining the coalition, Obi had lost his membership of the LP and must resign within 48 hours.
The camp described the coalition as a conglomeration of “power mongers whose only interest was self and not the people.”
It warned Nigerians 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.”
The National Publicity Secretary, Mr Obiora Ifoh, in a statement, alleged that “all those who mismanaged Nigeria over the years are the ones that gathered themselves in the coalition,” while noting that desperate politicians cannot birth a new Nigeria.
The camp added, “We are aware of several nocturnal meetings between Peter Obi and some of our members, lobbying them to join him in his new party. We’re also aware that a number of them have refused to defect with him.
“Labour Party has consistently said it is not part of the coalition and therefore, any of our members who is part of the coalition is given within 48 hours to formally resign his membership of the party.
“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 claim to be in the Labour Party and in the evening are in the coalition.
“Nearly 70 per cent of the Nigerian population are youths who are tired of the old order, tired of gerontocrats deciding their fate. The new Nigeria that the youths are dreaming of is not what can be realised from what we are seeing in the coalition.
“These people are opportunistic politicians who are only interested in relaunching themselves into the circle of power, people who are desperate to continue holding on to power.”
But in a swift response, the Usman-led NCC dismissed the Abure group, saying that following the April 4 Supreme Court judgment, which ended his tenure, Abure no longer held any authority in the LP to decide the fate of Obi.
It said Obi remained part of the LP while also participating in the ADC’s coalition.
The Senior Special Adviser (Media) to the NCC’s Chairman, Ken Eluma Asogwa, in a statement on Thursday, urged Nigerians and party supporters to ignore the Abure camp.
Disputing the 48-hour ultimatum, the NCC leader’s aide wrote, “The attention of the Labour Party has been drawn to misleading reports and commentaries suggesting that His Excellency, Mr Peter Obi, has been issued a 48-hour ultimatum to resign from the party following his participation in the recent coalition talks and the unveiling of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) in Abuja.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the leadership of the Labour Party, on 26 May 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.”
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