Chuks Okocha in Abuja
Ahead of the deadline for the submission of names of nominated presidential candidates by political parties, a fresh crisis has erupted within the Labour Party over where its presidential candidate will come from.
The National Chairman of the party, Senator Nenadi Usman, has insisted that the presidential candidate of the party should come from the South, but the party stakeholders and the Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council are resisting the National Working Committee led by Senator Usman.
So far only Arc. Peter Agada paid and obtained the presidential nomination form. He is from the North Central zone.
In a statement opposing the Usman-led party, Prince TemiLade Craig and Dr. Blessing Elaigwu opposed the zoning arrangement, stating that it was not stipulated when Agada bought the form and ratified by stakeholders.
According to the statement, “We Labour Party stakeholders and supporters nationwide, in solidarity with the Presidential Campaign Council of Arc. Peter Agada, received with great shock and dismay an unconstitutional and unacceptable decision taken yesterday Thursday May 28, 2026 by the Governor Alex Otti-led National Executive Council (NEC) and National Working Committee (NWC) of the Labour Party headed by the National Chairman of the party, Sen. Nenadi Usman.
”This is the decision to unlawfully bar Arc. Peter Agada, the most outstanding presidential aspirant of our party, from the party’s presidential primary, which is scheduled to hold today.
”Three untenable reasons make the eleventh hour decision to exclude Arc. Agada from the Labour Party’s presidential primary unacceptable. These border on bare-faced insincerity amounting to undisguised fraud, assault to the Labour Party’s ideology of equal opportunity, social justice and fair play, presenting a devastating reminder of the corruption riddled recent history of the party’s immediate past national leadership,” the stakeholders said.
According to the stakeholders, ”Below are a few of the reasons we speak to resist the new tendency of tyranny and corruption the Sen. Nenadi led Labour Party has embraced too soon on the mantle, in the hope that the party would retreat timely from its now clear self-destruct path.
”The unconstitutional decision to disqualify and proscribe Arc. Peter Agada from the oncoming Labour Party presidential primary took place only yesterday May 28, 2026 through a letter from the party’s national chairman, Sen. Nenadi Usman, after extracting from him exorbitant fees for various aspirant forms, secretariat development contributions and considerable campaign structure expenditures by the aspirant across the country, amounting to N300 million in the space of one month.
”Upon fulfilling the above huge financial burdens at the demand of the party, Arc. Peter Agada was successfully screened for the presidential primary dating back to May 6, 2026.
”The unlawful fiat by the Sen. Nenadi led NWC which was used to suddenly disqualified Arc. Peter Agada only yesterday from the forthcoming presidential primary of Saturday is being fraudulently premised on the front that the party’s national convention of April 28, 2026 adopted a resolution to zone the 2027 presidential ticket of the party to the South.
”This is leading millions of rational party faithfuls and Nigerians at large to query that assuming this was even true, why did Sen. Nenadi Usman and her NWC, conscious of their intention to impose a zoning resolution, still knowingly lure into her cash-and-carry web, audaciously demand and receive the sum of N150 million from Arc. Agada as LP presidential aspirant and thereafter conducted a successful screening of Arc. Peter Agada on May 6, 2027? For the avoidance of doubt, there is no provision for zoning elective offices in the Labour Party’s constitution, past or current one emanating from the recent national convention of the party which was held at Umuahia, Abia state, on April 28, 2026.
”Why did the Sen. Nenadi Usman’s NWC suddenly turn round to decree his disqualification only three days to the primary, after making the aspirant to establish presidential campaign structures and undertake activities across the states of the country amounting to another N150 million, totalling an expenditure of N300 million within the short period in view?
”At its mildest form, this is an unfair ransom robbery by the Sen. Nenadi Usman leadership of the Labour Party, tantamount to premeditated and calculated fraud. An act which sadly mirrors the corruption riddled era of Labour Party’s erstwhile national leadership which the entire country has continued to condemn to this day.
”The unconstitutional decision to bar Arc. Peter Agada hours before the oncoming Labour Party presidential primary amounts to injustice of naked apartheid against the aspirant.
”Cases abound that since the Umuahia Convention which gave birth to the new leadership of the party, the Governor Alex Otti led NEC, hand in globe with Sen. Nenadi Usman’s NWC did not zone the party’s elective offices across national, zonal or local council lines in any part of Nigeria. In Edo state, for example, one of the Sen. Nenadi NWC national officers is the Edo North senatorial district aspirant, his wife of the same constituency is the House of Rep aspirant, and his younger brother, also of the same constituency, Edo state House of Assembly aspirant. In the face of such monumental travesty against the motto and ideology of the Labour Party, rational party faithfuls and Nigerians in general are now asking of the Nenadi Usman NWC: if the above is true, why is zoning suddenly being invoked as a sacrosanct provision of the Umuahia Convention only in the case of Arc. Peter Agada, the party’s most prominent and saliently qualified presidential aspirant?”, they stated
Accordingly, the Labour Party stakeholders and presidential campaign council said, ”The unfolding apartheid treatment of the Arc. Peter Agada presidential aspiration does not reflect the social justice and equal opportunity motto and ethos of the Labour Party but rather an ideologically inimical misnomer.
”Sadly, it adds to the growing mountain of widely reported internal injustices and outcries within the Nenadi Usman led Labour Party echoing from numerous states of the federation where, since the Umuahia Convention, countless victims have accused the Nenadi NWC and Otti NEC of changing congress elected and convention ratified state excos with their human crumbs and cronies who are either known to have worked notoriously against the progress of the party in the past, have contributed nothing to its growth, or are total outsiders, some actually members of other political parties but willing no-question-asked multi-party political tools of the party hierarchy.
”Flowing from the above, we the integrity stakeholders of the Labour Party respectfully call on the Chairman Nenadi Usman leadership to urgently review its position and allow Arc. Peter Agada contest the presidential primaries without let or hindrance.
”If this is not done within the few hours left before the primaries begin barely 24hours away, we shall be left with no option than to mobilize in solidarity with the Peter Agada Presidential Campaign Council for legal redress of all matters contained in this release.”, they declared.
