2027: Only LP under my leadership will be on ballot – Nenadi Usman

The Interim National Chairperson of the Labour Party, Nenadi Usman, says only one the LP she heads will be on the ballot in the forthcoming 2027 general elections.

Usman said this on Monday while fielding questions in an interview on Arise Television’s ‘Prime Time’, adding that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, only recognises her as chairperson of the party and not any one else.

She said this means that only she can write to INEC to attend the party’s primary election or congresses and not the Julius Abure-led faction, stressing that there is no ambiguity about who the leader is.

The former lawmaker said, “Well, with the recognition by INEC, it means only one party would be on the ballot, and it means we are the only ones who can write INEC, and INEC would come and attend to the primary elections we are conducting, or congresses, or whatever.

“So it means that there will be no ambiguity about who is the leader and which part of the party is the party.

“So one more thing I want to say is, at this point in time, people are actually supposed to be thinking, first about Nigeria. Secondly, about the Labour Party. If you love Nigeria, you love the Labour Party, there’s an extent to which you would go.
“We are not attacking each other. If your tenure is over, your tenure is over. The institutional members, the other members of NEC come together, sit together with the leader of the party, who is His Excellency Governor Alex Otti of Abia State, because he’s the most senior political office holder in our party.

“So if you the major stakeholders, the NEC members, come together, sit together and say, okay, INEC has told us that we don’t have any leadership anymore, and because of that, we have to do something. We have to come up with a team that would help us organize congresses right from the ward level to local government, state and then culminate into a national convention.

“That has been done, and they said they do not want to do it, but you see the way you see me, I’m a very peaceful woman. I don’t look like somebody who has been out there fighting. I’m not a daggers drawn with anybody.”