A fresh leadership crisis has erupted in the Labour Party (LP), further widening divisions within the camp associated with former presidential candidate Peter Obi and Abia State Governor Alex Otti, following the dissolution of the Senator Nenadi Usman–led interim National Working Committee (iNWC).
The sack of the iNWC was announced by the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT) in conjunction with a quorum of the statutory National Executive Council (NEC), according to a leaked statement dated December 2, 2025. The statement was jointly signed by the BoT Chairman, S.O. Ejiofor, and Secretary, Salisu Mohammed.
Ejiofor said the decision followed months of what he described as “gross incompetence,” failure to conduct congresses, and actions capable of plunging the party into “irreparable oblivion” ahead of the 2027 general elections.
As part of the leadership shake-up, the party reappointed Prince Tony Akeni as acting National Publicity Secretary and Nwauwa Nnawuihie as acting National Secretary, pending the constitution of a new interim National Working Committee in line with the party’s constitution.
“The Board of Trustees and statutory National Executive Council quorum of the Labour Party of Nigeria stand by the dissolution of the Senator Nenadi Usman and Senator Darlington Nwokocha-led interim National Working Committee of the party as officially communicated to the dissolved committee in the party’s letter of December 3, 2025,” Ejiofor said.
The statement traced the crisis to the appointment of the Nenadi-led committee on September 4, 2024, in Umuahia, Abia State, with a 90-day mandate to organise nationwide state congresses and a national convention in line with a 2018 consent judgment and an INEC-brokered settlement.
According to the BoT, the committee failed to meet the deadline and also failed to deliver after a further 90-day extension granted on July 18, 2025, which expired on October 17, 2025, “without even a single ward congress conducted nationwide.”
The dissolved committee was also accused of presiding over a period in which the Labour Party was excluded by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from local government elections, by-elections, and other upcoming polls, resulting in mass defections and organisational paralysis.
“During the same period under the sleepwalking leadership of the Usman-led committee, LP was brazenly excluded by INEC from participating in all local council elections, state and National Assembly by-elections throughout Nigeria during the outgoing year 2025,” the statement added.
However, the Nenadi faction has rejected the dissolution, setting the stage for renewed legal and political confrontation.
Reacting, Nenadi Usman’s media aide, Ken Asogwa, dismissed the action as unconstitutional and legally untenable, insisting that the BoT lacks the authority to dissolve a National Working Committee.
“Dissolved by who? The BoT or the NLC? Have you seen where a BoT dissolved a constituted National Working Committee of a political party before?” Asogwa asked.
He argued that only the NEC and a National Convention have the constitutional powers to dissolve an NWC.
“The only two organs of a political party, including the Labour Party, that have the capacity to dissolve a National Working Committee are the NEC and the National Convention,” he said.
Asogwa also questioned the authenticity of the letters announcing and retracting the dissolution, citing contradictions, and maintained that Nenadi Usman remains the party’s legitimate national chairman by virtue of NEC appointment and a Supreme Court judgment.
Similarly, the Labour Party’s National Publicity Secretary, Obiora Ifoh, dismissed claims of factionalism and challenged the legitimacy of the BoT behind the dissolution.
“You can’t place something on nothing. In truth, we don’t have any faction,” Ifoh said, adding that the BoT cited in the statement “has not been constituted” by the party.
According to him, the body acting as the BoT belongs to the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), which he accused of interfering in party affairs.
“What you see playing out is the BoT that belongs to the Nigeria Labour Congress. The NLC has become a government organisation that now appoints a BoT for a political party,” he said.
Ifoh dismissed allegations that loyalists of Julius Abure had infiltrated the party to fuel the crisis, insisting that the Labour Party remains united under a single leadership.
“These guys are just distractions. They are amusing themselves and bastardising what democracy stands for,” he added.
The latest development underscores the deepening internal crisis within the Labour Party, raising fresh concerns about its organisational stability and electoral preparedness ahead of the 2027 general elections.
