The Abure-led faction of the Labour Party (LP), has ruled out an automatic ticket for Peter Obi as the party’s presidential candidate for 2027.
The faction also ruled out an automatic second-term ticket for the current Governor of Abia State, Alex Otti, on the party’s platform.

The developments were announced during a press briefing on Monday by the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC). The NEC has now announced that these nominations, and all others for which the party would contest, will be open to all candidates.

Also speaking during the press briefing, Abure, in what appears to be a direct response to the stakeholders’s meeting convened by Governor Otti last week in which a caretaker committee for the party was appointed, said no governor can harass them out of office.

In his words, “No governor that we gave ticket can harass us out of office; no governor, no matter how highly placed, will come and with a fiat, dissolve the NWC, dissolve state councils, or dissolve LG councils; even a military government would not do that.”

Abure argued that the mandate given to him and his team as leaders of the Labour Party at the convention of the party held on the 27th day of March 2024, will be defended.

Recall that the Labour Party (LP), at its stakeholders meeting held in Umuahia, Abia State capital, last week Wednesday, appointed Senator Esther Nenadi Usman, the Chairman of the Caretaker Committee of the party.

Usman, a former Minister of Finance, represented Kaduna South senatorial district from 2011 to 2015.

Immediate-past Senate Minority Deputy Leader, Senator Darlington Nwokocha from Abia Central, was picked as the Secretary of the 29-member committee, expected to complete its assignment in 90 days.