The Labour Party’s interim national chairman, Senator Nenadi Usman has declared that its 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, would be legally barred from contesting the 2027 election on the party’s platform, citing strict membership registration deadlines under the Electoral Act.
Usman made the disclosure in an interview with Arise TV on Wednesday, saying the party’s register would be closed 21 days before its primaries and submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission.
She said, “Well it will be too late actually for him to come back because if you look at the act now, at some point we close the register.
“Once we close the register 21 days before primaries, submit the register, the e-register to INEC, you can’t come from behind the door for us to register you and for you to contest the elections. That would be impossible, legally impossible anyway.”
Usman, who acknowledged that Obi had been instrumental in the party’s 2023 surge, said she herself had been persuaded by the former Anambra governor to defect from the Peoples Democratic Party to the Labour Party ahead of the last general election.
“Even me, he convinced me to come with him to Labour Party. Convinced me and not just me, many people that are in Labour Party today were convinced by, let’s join Peter, go to Labour Party because we believed in equity and fair play,” she said.
She said her decision to leave the PDP was rooted in the belief that the party had failed to zone its presidential ticket to the south.
“We believe that PDP should have zoned the seat to the south. But since they left it open and said there were no zoning and a northerner, they were trying to field a northerner, we felt no, it’s not fair. Though I’m a northerner but I felt it was not fair,” Usman said.
The LP has been embroiled in a protracted leadership crisis since its strong 2023 outing.
The conflict, which crystallised around competing claims to the national chairmanship, pitted Usman’s caretaker committee against the camp of former national chairman Julius Abure, whose faction accused the caretaker group of an illegitimate takeover.
The Supreme Court ruled in April 2025 that Abure’s tenure had expired, and a Federal High Court in Abuja subsequently sacked him and ordered INEC to recognise only Usman’s committee as the legitimate leadership pending a national convention.
Usman’s team thereafter took over the party’s national secretariat in Utako, Abuja, amid accusations of vandalism and document theft levelled against Abure loyalists.
The Court of Appeal in Abuja recently dismissed Abure’s challenge, unanimously affirming Usman as interim chairman and directing INEC to deal exclusively with her faction.
Abure has indicated he will appeal to the Supreme Court, leaving the legal dispute unresolved.
The crisis has cost the party dearly, with mass defections, a reduced National Assembly presence, and a weakened grassroots structure.
Obi himself cited the prolonged internal turmoil as a factor in his decision to leave. Usman’s faction has since begun membership revalidation and zoned the party’s 2027 presidential ticket to the south.
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