Civil Society Organisations on Wednesday joined candidates of the Julius Abure-led Labour Party (LP) to protest the exclusion of the party’s candidates from the August 16th, 2025, bye-elections
The protesters who had besieged the INEC headquarters decried the exclusion of the party from the forthcoming bye-election scheduled to hold nationwide and demanded their inclusion in the forthcoming polls.
The protesters who came in several buses stormed the National Headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), as early as 11:00 am, amidst early morning rain on Wednesday, to press home their demand.
Dozens of the protesters carrying placards with inscriptions such as: “INEC, who is using you against LP,” “Mahmood stop destroying democracy in Nigeria”, “Tell INEC to obey court orders”, among others.
Speaking on behalf of the protesters, Barry Avotu-Johnson, the Labour Party Deputy National Youth Leader, cautioned INEC against truncating Nigeria’s nascent democracy
“We are here to demand that the National Chairman of.INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, should respect the Court Order recognising Barrister. Julius Abure as National Chairman of our great party.
“We are also demanding that he uploads the names of our validly nominated candidates for the forthcoming bye-elections.
“This is not asking for too much. Justice and the respect for the rule of law which is the hallmark of democracy all over the world, Nigeria shouldn’t be an exception.”
Speaking in a similar vein, Peter Ugwu, a Chieftain of the LP in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), said, “We are here to demand our rights.
We in the FCT conducted primaries and elected candidates for this election. Sadly, while the names of candidates of other political parties have been uploaded on the INEC portal, ours have not. INEC should correct this anomaly by doing the needful.”
Peter Piper, while speaking on behalf of the CSOs, also cautioned INEC and urged the electoral body to include the LP candidates
“This is about democracy and the rule of law. An injury to one is an injury to all.”
In his response, Abdullahi Zuru, INEC’s National Commissioner who represented the Chairman, promised that the message of the protesters will be communicated to the leadership of the commission.
BusinessDay gathered that the INEC had earlier declared that the Abure-led leadership of the LP was illegal as his tenure had long expired since June, 2024.
The electoral body said the Abure-led executive lacks the legal powers to present candidates for elections.
