The warring groups in the Labour Party (LP) on Tuesday disagreed over an alleged plot to expel the party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi, from the party.
The sin of the former governor of Anambra State, according to a splinter group of the faction controlled by Mr Julius Abure, the LP’s national chairman, is his decision to join other politicians in the coalition under the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
However, the Chairman of the National Caretaker Committee (NCC) of the party, Senator Nenadi Usman, dismissed the threat, saying that the LP had no intention of expelling Obi.
Usman’s Senior Special Adviser, Media, Mr Ken Asogwa, said those threatening to expel Obi were individuals sacked from the leadership of the party by the 4 April judgment of the Supreme Court.
He noted that there were plans to “convene a kangaroo meeting with the aim of sowing confusion and mischief in the ongoing coalition efforts involving His Excellency, Mr Peter Obi.”
Calling the group “political jesters unknown to the party but parading themselves as members”, he added that the “impostors, acting on behalf of shadowy interests, intend to purport an expulsion of Mr Obi from the Labour Party — a move as laughable as it is illegal.”
The NCC urged “Nigerians to disregard the desperate rantings of these meddlesome interlopers whose only mission is to undermine the credibility and towering influence of Mr Peter Obi in the coalition-building process aimed at rescuing Nigeria.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the Labour Party, through a widely circulated statement issued on the 25th of May, 2025, made it categorically clear that Mr Peter Obi’s involvement in the coalition talks enjoys the full backing and blessing of the leadership of the party.
“The media and the general public are hereby enjoined to ignore these comedians of politics who are merely performing for their paymasters. They are well aware that the sun is fast setting on their charade, and their relevance — anchored solely on attacking Peter Obi — will evaporate the moment he completes his signified intention to join the newly birthed platform.
“This latest drama should be rightly seen for what it is: the desperate last kick of a dying horse.
“It is important to recall that the Supreme Court of Nigeria — the highest judicial authority in the land — has long affirmed in a landmark judgment delivered on 4 April, 2025, that the tenure of these political impersonators expired a long time ago. On what legal or moral authority, then, do they stand to make any pronouncement on behalf of the Labour Party?”
The Usman-led NCC reacted on Tuesday shortly after a factional National Publicity Secretary of the Abure group, Mr Abayomi Arabambi, spoke of plans to expel Obi for joining ADC.
Speaking in an interview with Channels TV, he claimed Obi’s decision was “unconstitutional” as no one could be a member of two political parties at the same time.
Arabambi said, “We are convening a NEC (National Executive Council) meeting where he will be expelled. It is unconstitutional for you to belong to two political parties at a time.”
Incidentally, the expulsion threat came on the heels of a pending 48-hour ultimatum earlier issued to Obi by the Abure-led National Working Committee (NWC) to resign from the LP.
On his part, Obi declared at the weekend that he remained a member of the LP, though he joined the coalition in the collective search for good governance in Nigeria.
