The Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to recognise the Senator Esther Nenadi Usman-led caretaker committee as the lawful leadership of the Labour Party, ruling that the tenure of Julius Abure as national chairman has elapsed.
Delivering judgment on Wednesday, Justice Peter Lifu relied on an April 4, 2025 decision of the Supreme Court to declare the former minister of finance as the valid leader of the party pending the conduct of a national convention. The court directed INEC to “forthwith recognise the Senator Nenadi Usman-led Caretaker Committee as the only valid authority to represent the Labour Party.”
The ruling followed a suit marked THC/ABJ/CS/2262/2025 filed by Usman, in which Abure and the Nigeria Labour Congress were cited as defendants.
Justice Lifu held that evidence before the court established that Abure’s tenure had expired and rejected the argument that the dispute was an internal party affair beyond judicial review.
He ruled that the constitution of a caretaker committee was “a necessity” arising from the Supreme Court’s order.
The court recalled that the Labour Party’s National Executive Committee had earlier resolved to remove Abure amid a leadership crisis and subsequently constituted a 29-member caretaker committee chaired by Usman.
That decision emerged from an expanded stakeholders’ meeting hosted in Umuahia by Abia State Governor Alex Otti and chaired by the party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi.
Abure had challenged his removal and sought judicial validation of his position in a separate suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1271/2024.
In an affidavit, he stated that he was lawfully elected acting national chairman at a NEC meeting in Benin City on March 29, 2021, following the death of the party’s national chairman.
He further told the court that at an NEC meeting in Asaba on April 18, 2023, monitored by INEC, the party resolved to renew the tenures of state chairmen whose terms had expired, expelled members accused of anti-party activities and filled resulting vacancies.
Abure also claimed that, based on a consensus reached at that meeting, the party held a national convention on March 27, 2024 in Nnewi, Anambra State, where he was elected national chairman. He said the party under his leadership produced candidates for the governorship elections in Edo and Ondo states.
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Although the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal initially upheld Abure’s position and ordered INEC to recognise him, those decisions were overturned by the Supreme Court.
In a lead judgment prepared by Justice Inyang Okoro, the apex court allowed an appeal filed by Usman and the caretaker committee’s secretary, Hon Darlington Nwokocha, dismissed Abure’s cross-appeal and nullified the concurrent findings of the lower courts.
The Supreme Court also urged political parties to adhere to their own rules in appointing officers and advised party officials whose tenures have expired to vacate office.
Justice Lifu said the apex court’s pronouncements were binding and decisive, forming the basis for Wednesday’s order directing INEC to recognise the Usman-led caretaker committee.
In another case, the Federal High Court, upheld the exclusion of Labour Party, LP, candidates from the area council elections scheduled to take place on Feb. 21 in the Federal Capital Territory.
Justice Peter Lifu declined to order the INEC, to accept or publish the party’s list of candidates for the polls.
Justice Lifu said that the suit filed by the Labour Party and its candidates in the FCT elections, was statute barred having not been filed 14 days after the cause of action arose.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the party and its candidates for the FCT counsel poll had filed the suit challenging INEC’s decision to exclude LP candidates from the elections.
The party had argued that its candidates were duly nominated but were unlawfully excluded when INEC published the final list of contestants in September 2025.
The party also complained that its logo was omitted from the list of political parties authorised to participate in the elections.
The plaintiffs said they wrote to the INEC Chairman on Sept. 8, 2025, and followed up with a letter on Oct. 2, 2025, protesting the exclusion, but received no response.
They told the court that without judicial intervention, they would be unfairly barred from fielding candidates in the polls.
Justice Lifu, however, dismissed the suit, upholding INEC’s position on the exclusion of the party’s candidates. NAN
