By Abubakar Yunusa
The crisis rocking the Labour Party deepened on Monday as the Senator Nenadi Usman-led National Working Committee called for the immediate arrest of former National Chairman, Julius Abure, over alleged contempt of court and violent invasion of the party’s national secretariat in Abuja.
Addressing journalists in Abuja, the Deputy National Chairman, Prof. Theophilus Ndubuaku, said the party had formally petitioned the Inspector-General of Police, demanding investigation and prosecution of Abure and others for alleged criminal trespass, armed robbery, theft, assault, impersonation and threats to national security.
He also urged the Attorney-General of the Federation to activate the Criminal Prosecution Order of 7 March 2025 against Abure and others over alleged perjury, forgery and conspiracy.
Ndubuaku commended security agencies for what he described as a professional and neutral intervention that prevented further breakdown of law and order at the party’s secretariat located at Utako, Abuja.
Citing judicial authorities, the LP leadership said the Supreme Court of Nigeria, in a judgment delivered on 4 April 2025, affirmed Senator Nenadi Usman as National Chairman and Senator Darlington Nwokocha as National Secretary of the party.
The position, he said, was reaffirmed by the Federal High Court in its January 21, 2026 judgment, which ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission to recognise the Usman-led executive as the only valid leadership pending a national convention.
According to him, INEC has since complied with the subsisting judgments.
He said trouble started on February 10, 2026, when the party’s leadership visited the secretariat between 11am and 3pm to receive a report from the Membership Registration and Revalidation Committee chaired by Abia State Deputy Governor, Ikechukwu Emetu.
“All offices and facilities were intact as at the time of inspection,” Ndubuaku said.
However, he alleged that at about 8.30pm the same day, individuals led by Abure stormed the premises armed with weapons, held gatemen at gunpoint, assaulted staff and vandalised property.
He alleged that sensitive documents, financial records, registration materials and electronic gadgets were carted away during the 30-minute operation.
“This was not politics; it was criminality of the highest order,” he declared.
The party insisted that reconciliation could not coexist with what it described as criminal invasion and defiance of binding court judgments.
Ndubuaku maintained that under Nigerian law, only the Usman-led NWC has the authority to administer the party and occupy its national secretariat.
“Nigeria is a constitutional democracy governed by laws, not brigandage,” he said, warning that no amount of press statements or nocturnal operations could override decisions of competent courts.
However, Abure’s camp dismissed the allegations in a statement signed by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Obiora Ifoh.
“The attention of the leadership of the Labour Party has been drawn to an unsigned press conference purportedly by one Nenadi Usman and her cohorts, which talked about the invasion of the Labour Party’s national headquarters as well as a case of forgery and so on.
“We need to state very clearly that the tone of the press conference was not only fallacious and laughable but one that must be dismissed with a wave of the hand,” the statement read.
