2027: Abure-Led Labour Party Declares Nomination Forms Are Free

LABOUR PARTY DISTRIBUTES FREE FORMS, TO FIELD CANDIDATES ACROSS ALL POSITIONS

A Press Conference by the National Chairman of Labour Party, Barr. Julius Abure in Abuja on Monday, the 18th of May, 2026.

Gentlemen of the Press, you are welcome to this all important Press Conference by the Labour Party being the first of such after the January 21st Appeal Court judgement against our leadership.

Nigerians should recall that when the court of Appeal delivered judgment on the 21st of April, 2026 on the Labour Party crisis, our leadership stated clearly that the party will be heading to the Supreme Court. I am happy to announce that we have filed our notice of appeal, and that we are waiting for the compilation of our records so that we can properly file our brief in the Supreme Court.

It is pertinent at this point to put the records straight, due to the misconception that is associated with the story of Labour Party in some sections of the media, which are clearly incorrect and hugely misrepresenting the facts of the matter. What is happening to the party presently is a clear case of victimisation aftermath of the role we played in the 2023 general election.

Labour Party was marked for decimation and possible annihilation but unfortunately, those who were the beneficiaries of that hugely successful political action are today the ones being used as protagonists and point men to carry out the execution of the plot against the party.

It is important to note that the current leadership of the Labour Party, the Abure led executive, emerged through the National Convention held on the 27th of March, 2024 at Nnewi. All the reports from the convention as required by the law were submitted to the INEC and were all accepted, only for INEC to come up in August 2024, five months after, to say that the tenure of the executive has expired,

There were no justifiable reasons for INEC’s volte-face and ironically, one would have expected all those we have elected to team up with the leadership to resist INEC and confront them with the fact on ground but instead, they proceeded to set up a caretaker committee that eventually created faction in the party.

In any event, we went to court and the Federal High Court by Justice Nwite stated clearly that the convention that brought our executive was in line with the law and that INEC didn’t have any reason not to recognize the leadership of the party and ordered INEC to recognize the leadership of the party. The court of Appeal also affirmed the judgement of the trial court. It was this matter that Nenadi Usman and co appealed against, and the Supreme Court stated clearly that issues of leadership are an internal affairs of the party.

From that time to January, 2026, we have been running the party, working closely with INEC, until on the 21st of January when Justice Peter Lifu pronounced as stated that Nenadi Usman was the chairman of the party. How he arrived at that and made that flip-flop is still surprising to us. This was what resulted in the appeal and the Court of Appeal regrettably affirmed that decision.

Because of the injustice involved and because our action will enhance the legal jurisprudence in Nigeria, we want to see what the Supreme Court will say in line with what was said before and now. This is what has given us the courage to say that we are going to the Supreme Court.

In any event, Labour Party under our leadership will participate FULLY in the 2027 elections. Our forms are available and aspirants have been picking forms. All our forms can be accessed in all the Labour Party social and online platforms, for free. Just download, fill them and submit to our state chairmen across the nation.

While our governorship and state Houses of Assembly primaries will hold on Wednesday May 27th 2026, the House of Representatives and the Senate primaries will hold on Friday May 29th, 2026. All exercises will be through direct primaries which will take place at the Local Government headquarters of the party. A presidential candidate will emerge through a consensus arrangement on Friday May 29th, 2026 in a presidential primaries which will hold in Abuja.

You may want to know why we have chosen to participate fully for this coming election in spite of the Appeal Court ruling. Of course, you are aware that for anyone to participate in a pre-election matter, you must have participated in all the processes leading to the primaries including buying of nomination forms and observation all INEC regulations. As a result, we have encouraged all our members across the country who have interest in running for elective offices to pick up the necessary form for FREE so that they can participate and be part of the process. This decision is informed by the fact that all that Nenadi Usman and co have done are purely illegal. The notice they wrote to INEC was illegal, in the sense that only NEC of a party can approve and fix dates for congresses and primaries.

You will recall that they did not hold any NEC before publishing their intention to embark on congresses and primaries and INEC wrote them informing them of the illegality of their action. When they eventually called for a NEC, it never formed quorum as they alienated a significant constituents of the NEC including the state chairmen and secretaries. These chairmen and secretaries have since taken action and sacked the Nenadi executive and have also sued the executive, a matter which is still pending in the court.

Everything they have done or purported to be doing is illegal because you can’t put something on nothing and expect it to stand. Therefore, we expect that all they have done with respect to the nomination of candidates will be null and void. That is why our members, the true Labour Party members need to participate in the ongoing exercise and produce their candidates across Nigeria. We have therefore chosen to ensure through our Free forms initiative, to enfranchise them to participate in the coming general election and the result has been massive and encouraging.

To further make some clarifications, our Free Form Initiative is in line with the philosophy and ideology of the Labour Party. This is to make partisan politics easy and affordable for those who have the capacity to win elections but may not have the huge funds to deploy into the contest. This will not be the first time that the Labour Party will be doing it. We did it in the 2022/23 general election and that was why Okada riders and palm kernel crushers won seats in the National Assembly.

Also, Nigerians will recall that January this year, we had announced that our forms should be issued FREE of charge for those who will attend our mentorship programs. A party like the Labour Party should not charge an exorbitant price for their forms. We are shocked that Nenadi Usman and her fellow usurpers are strangulating aspirants with high fees. Though they are strangers to the Labour Party, we expect them to go back and learn the philosophy and ideology of the Labour Party

We also need to make it very clear that a lot of misconception has been spreading, probably deliberately, that the leadership of the Labour Party requested huge sums of money from Abia state governor, Dr. Alex Otti in order to reconcile. We need to make it categorically clear that the meeting we had with His Excellency, Governor Otti was purely for reconciliation and how to forge ahead but that meeting produced no headway because the governor refused to give an inch to his earlier recalcitrant stand, insisting that all the structure of the party must be dissolved. The terms of our proposal to him are as follows.

One, to share the positions in the NWC; Two, to take his governorship ticket and produce all the state House of Assembly candidates including all the candidates for House of Representatives and Senate in Abia state; and Three, to produce any other governorship, House of Representatives and Senatorial candidates in other states where he might have interest. We further conceded the offices of the National Secretary and other key national offices. But with all these sacrifices from the leadership, the Governor declined all the proposals and insisted that already all positions in the NWC have been filled, by him. While offering to us the Vice Chairman and Secretary of the Board of Trustees.

At no time was the issue of money discussed. Nobody made any financial requests and nobody offered any money to anyone. We are therefore calling on all party members and supporters to disregard those fake news which sources are not too difficult to decipher.

Our leadership will not rest until we recover our party from some political buccaneers and merchants who will stop at nothing until the soul of the party is completely destroyed. We believe that the Supreme Court will do justice to the matter, and until then, we will continue to carry out our responsibilities entrusted on us by the March 27, 2024 convention of the party in Nnewi.

Sign.

Barr. Julius Abure
National Chairman
Labour Party

18th of May, 2026.

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