The Labour Party’s interim national chairman, Senator Nenadi Usman has clarified that Peter Obi, would be legally barred from contesting the 2027 election under the party.
She noted strict membership registration deadlines under the Electoral Act.
Usman revealed this during an interview on Arise TV on Wednesday, adding 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 further revealed that Obi had also previously persuaded her to leave PDP and join Labour Party. While also acknowledging that Obi was very instrumental to the party in 2023.
She said, “He even convinced me to join him in the Labour Party. Not just me—he convinced many others who are in the party today.”
She also said she left the PDP because she believed the party failed to zone its presidential ticket to the South.
Backstory…
Usman’s caretaker committee and the camp of former national chairman Julius Abure, whose faction accused the caretaker group of an unlawful coup, were at odds over conflicting claims to the national leadership.
After the Supreme Court declared in April 2025 that Abure’s tenure had ended, a Federal High Court in Abuja removed him and directed INEC to recognise Usman’s committee as the only valid leadership pending a national convention.
Following allegations of document theft and damage against Abure loyalists, Usman’s group assumed control of the party’s national secretariat in Utako, Abuja.
Meanwhile, the Court of Appeal in Abuja recently dismissed Abure’s challenge, affirming Usman as interim chairman and directing INEC to deal exclusively with her faction.
Consequently, Abure has indicated he will appeal to the Supreme Court, leaving the legal dispute unresolved.
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