The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said that it will not include candidates of the Labour Party (LP) in the forthcoming Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Area Council elections, pending the determination of cases involving the party before courts of law.
Members of LP believed to be loyal to the Julius Abure-led faction of the party, on Monday, staged a protest at the INEC headquarters in Abuja over the exclusion of the party’s candidates from participating in forthcoming February 21 FCT Area Council elections.
The LP members said the protest was against the refusal of INEC to obey a court order, which directed the commission to issue access codes to enable the party to upload particulars of its candidates.
However, addressing the protesters, INEC National Commissioner, Prof. Adullahi Zuru, had assured that he will personally hand over the court order presented by the party members to the commission chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, and the commission will act appropriately on it.
But, in a statement signed by its Director of Voter Education and Publicity, Victoria Eta-Messi, INEC said LP had been enmeshed in prolonged internal leadership disputes since 2024, which culminated in the judgement of the Supreme Court in Appeal No. SC/CV/56/2025 (Usman v. Labour Party) delivered on April 4, 2025.
Eta-Messi said in that judgement, the apex Court unequivocally held that the tenure of the Julius Abure-led National Executive Committee had expired but despite the clear pronouncement, the Abure-led faction purportedly conducted primaries for the August 16, 2025, bye-election nationwide and the FCT Area Council elections.
