The Abuja division of the Federal High Court has declared Senator Esther Nenadi Usman as the National Chairman of the Labour Party (LP).
Justice Peter Lifu, consequently, ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to forthwith, recognize the Senator Nenadi Usman-led Caretaker Committee as “the only valid authority to represent the Labour Party,” pending when the party convenes a national convention
Justice Lifu, relied on the April 4, 2025, judgment of the Supreme Court to declare the former Minister of Finance, Senator Esther Nenadi Usman, as the valid leader of the party.
The judgement followed a suit marked: THC/ABJ/CS/2262/2025, which the former minister lodged before the court.
Listed as defendants in the suit were Julius Abure, the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
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In his judgment, Justice Lifu held that evidence before him established that Abure’s tenure as the national chairman of the LP had since elapsed.
While dismissing Abure’s contention that the matter was an internal affair of a political party that is non-justiceable, the court held that the setting up of the LP Caretaker Committee was “a necessity” that arose from the order of the Supreme Court.
Following a leadership crisis that rocked the LP, the National Executive Committee, NEC, of the party resolved to remove Abure as the National Chairman.
To fill the leadership vacuum, the party constituted a 29-member caretaker committee, with the former Finance Minister, Usman as Chairman.
The decision was the outcome of an expanded stakeholders’ meeting of the party that was hosted in Umuahia by governor Alex Otti of Abia State.
The meeting where Abure was sacked from office was chaired by his former ally and candidate of the party in the 2023 presidential election, Mr. Peter Obi.
In an affidavit he personally deposed to in support of the suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/1271/2024, Abure told the court that following the death of the National Chairman of the LP, he was lawfully elected as the Acting National Chairman of the party at a National Executive Council, NEC, meeting of the party that held in Benin City, Edo State, on March 29, 2021.
He told the court that on April 18, 2023, at the NEC meeting of the party held in Asaba, Delta State and duly monitored by INEC, it was resolved that tenures of State Chairmen whose tenures had expired, be renewed.
He said it was at the same meeting that some members that were engaged in anti-party activities were expelled and replacements for vacant positions created as a result of the expulsion, done.
Abure averred that in line with a consensus that was reached at the meeting, the party subsequently held its National Convention on March 27, 2024, at Nnewi, Anambra State, where we was lawfully elected to the office of National Chairman of the LP.
He said the party under his leadership produced candidates for governorship elections in both Edo and Ondo states.
While both the high court and the court of appeal upheld Abure’s case and ordered INEC to recognize him, he was however dislodged by the Supreme Court which nullified the concurrent decisions of the two lower courts
In its lead judgement that was prepared by Justice Inyang Okoro, the apex court allowed the appeal that was filed by Chairman and Secretary of the Caretaker Committee, Senator Usman and Hon. Darlington Nwokocha, respectively.
Specifically, the Supreme Court had in April 2025, set aside the judgment of the Court of Appeal in Abuja, which recognised Julius Abure as the national chairperson of the Labour Party (LP).
A five-member panel of the Supreme Court unanimously held that the Court of Appeal lacked jurisdiction to have affirmed Abure as chairman of the LP since the substance of the case was about the party’s leadership.
It held that the issue of leadership was an internal affair of a party over which courts lacked jurisdiction.
The apex court upheld the appeal filed against the judgment by Nenadi Usman, who was appointed the caretaker chairperson of the party in September 2024, and one other.
The National Executive Committee (NEC) sacked the Mr Abure-led executive in September last year and appointed Ms Usman, a former Minister of Finance and ex-senator representing Kaduna South, to lead a 29-member caretaker committee and facilitate the election of a new party leadership within 90 days.
The Supreme Court held that Ms Usman’s appeal was meritorious, as it also dismissed the cross-appeal filed by the Mr Abure-led faction of the LP for lacking merit.
Source: The Sun
