The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has restored Julius Abure’s name on its website as the National Chairman of the Labour Party.
INEC also re-enlisted Alhaji Umar Farouk Ibrahim as National Secretary of the party.
According to the electoral umpire, the reenlistment was based on a court order.
The electoral body also has Senator Samuel Anyanwu as National Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, on its website.
However, the Commission did not indicate whether the development was based on a court order.
Recall that the Supreme Court had last month set aside earlier decisions of the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal which recognized Abure as Labour Party’s National Chairman.
Abure since then had continued to lay claim to the seat, relying on the apex court’s decision that the issue of his chairmanship is an internal affair of the Labour Party and therefore not justiciable.
However, Abia State Governor, Alex Otti and the 2023 presidential candidate of the party, Mr Peter Obi, are insisting on the validity of the Caretaker Committee chaired by Senator Nenadi Usman, saying the ruling effectively sacked Abure.
Otti, on April 9, 2025, formally presented to INEC, a Certified True Copy of the Supreme Court judgment concerning the party’s leadership.
According to him, the move was aimed at fostering clarity, mutual understanding, and institutional alignment regarding the LP’s current structure.
Abure’s name was said to be re-enlisted after the Commission studied the Certified True Copy of the Supreme Court judgment.
Daily Post reports that the Supreme Court had also in March overturned the decisions of the Court of Appeal and the Federal High Court which sacked Anyanwu as the National Secretary of the PDP.
Before then, there had been a protracted leadership tussle between Anyanwu and Sunday Ude-Okoye, who was reportedly chosen by some governors of the party.
Like in the case of the LP, the apex court had ruled that the lower courts had no jurisdiction to have entertained the matter ab initio, stressing that it remained an internal affair of the PDP.
