Peter Obi, Abure disagree over bye-elections

Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has called on his supporters to vote for the African Democratic Congress (ADC) in Saturday’s bye-elections across 16 states of the federation. In a post on his official X handle today, August 14, Obi said the call became necessary because the Labour Party has no recognised candidates for […]

Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has called on his supporters to vote for the African Democratic Congress (ADC) in Saturday’s bye-elections across 16 states of the federation.

In a post on his official X handle today, August 14, Obi said the call became necessary because the Labour Party has no recognised candidates for the polls due to its lingering internal crisis.

“On the 16th of August 2025, Nigerians will go to the polling units again for the bye-elections,” he wrote. “This is expected to take place in the 16 states of the federation with two senatorial, five federal House of Representatives and nine state assembly seats available for voting.”

Obi explained that the Labour Party’s exclusion from the contest was the reason for his endorsement of ADC candidates.

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“Kindly note that because the Labour Party has no recognised candidates by INEC due to the internal crisis, I humbly urge every member of Obidient and COPDEM families to go out and vote for the coalition political party, African Democratic Congress (ADC), in their respective states,” he said.

“The struggle for Nigeria has started” he added.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had earlier announced that the bye-elections would be conducted in constituencies where vacancies occurred as a result of deaths, resignations, or judicial pronouncements.

However, in a statement signed by the factional National Chairman of the party, Barr. Julius Abure, on Thursday, described Obi’s call as “misleading, mischievous and delusional,” insisting that the party’s candidates are validly on the ballot for the polls.

“The attention of the leadership of the Labour Party has been drawn to a statement by the party’s former presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi, directing party members to cast their votes for another party in the August 16, 2025 bye-election,” the statement read.

“The party is however calling on all our faithful party members to ignore this malicious directive and go ahead with casting of their votes for the Labour Party and their candidates.”

Abure accused Obi of being “an irony and a paradox in the Nigerian political space,” alleging that Obi had “elevated subterfuge in the game of politics” and become “an Uber politician, not willing to take a position and stand by his decision.”

According to him, “He has now booked a place for himself in the Guinness Book of Records as a person affiliated to many political parties pari pasu, all in his desperation to preside over Nigeria.”

The faction further claimed that Obi instigated the crisis in the Labour Party which he now uses as a basis for advising against voting for the party.

“Nigerians should not forget in a hurry that it was Peter Obi that created the crisis in the Labour Party. He has also co-funded the crisis all these while and went as far as leading a protest march to INEC headquarters against his own party,” Abure alleged.

Abure, in the statement accused Obi of lacking “the competence, character and capacity to actualise the vision of a new Nigeria,” saying he had repaid the goodwill he received from the party leadership “with evil.”

Abure maintained that despite Obi’s opposition, the Labour Party would participate fully in the bye-election.

“What Obi does not know is that Labour Party is on the ballot and our candidates are contesting the election in spite of all his efforts to strangulate the Labour Party,” he said.