The Senator Nenadi Usman-led faction of the Labour Party (LP) has clashed with the Barrister Julius Abure group of the political organisation that had issued a 48-hour ultimatum to Peter Obi, their 2023 Presidential Candidate, to resign from the party for involving with the new opposition coalition.
Obi attended Wednesday’s unveiling of African Democratic Congress (ADC) as the joint vehicle for upstaging President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2027 elections.
In a statement on Thursday, Obiora Ifoh, Abure LP’s spokesman said they rejected the newly formed coalition and “Former Presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Gregory Obi has received a 48 hour ultimatum to formally resign his membership of the Labour Party having formally joined the coalition party.”
Ifoh alleged that Obi had been holding secret meetings with some of its members to woo them into joining the coalition.
“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,” he said.
“Labour Party has consistently said it is not part of the coalition, and therefore, any of our members who are part of the coalition are given 48 hours to formally resign their 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 who, in the morning, claim to be in the Labour Party and in the evening are in the coalition.
“Nearly 70 percent 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.”
However, the Nenadi Usman-headed LP, with loyalists like the party’s sole Governor, Abia State’s Alex Otti, dismissed the quit-and-subsist note from the rival faction.
In a statement, titled, “PETER OBI HAS NOT BEEN ISSUED ANY ULTIMATUM TO LEAVE THE LABOUR PARTY,” by Ken Eluma Asogwa, Senior Special Adviser, Media, to the Acting National Chairman of the Labour Party, Senator Nenadi Usman, the group said:
“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 May 26, 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.
“It is the remnants of the disorder and mess left behind by these impostors that the current leadership under Senator Nenadi Usman continues to clean. Therefore, members of the public, and especially the media, are urged to disregard the distractions and mischief from these discredited elements.
“For clarity, the only legitimate and authoritative source of information regarding the official position of the Labour Party on any matter remains the office of Senator Nenadi Usman, Acting National Chairman of the Labour Party.”
