The Julius Abure faction of the Labour Party has faulted its 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, for allegedly directing its members to vote for the African Democratic Congress in the upcoming August 16, 2025, bye-election.
In a statement signed by Abure on Friday, the faction accused Obi of allegedly undermining the party.
Obi, who has been involved with ADC but has not officially joined, in a statement on Thursday, urged his followers to vote for ADC candidates in their various states.
He said this is because of the lack of LP’s candidates in the by-elections.
“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 in their respective states,” he said.
However, Abure urged party members to dismiss Obi’s directive.
“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, by-election.
“The party said that Obi’s directive is misleading, mischievous and delusional. The party is, however, calling on all our faithful party members to ignore this malicious directive and go ahead with casting their votes for the Labour Party and their candidates,” the statement read.
Abure said Obi did not know that the party has done everything permissible by law to ensure that its candidate participate in the election.
“What Obi does not know is that the Labour Party is on the ballot and our candidates are contesting the election.
“The party, unknown to him, has done everything within the law to ensure that our candidates participate in the bye-election and, of course, in all other future elections.
“We are therefore encouraging our candidates, members and supporters across all the states where bye-elections are being held to be focused and ensure that we carry out our civic duties by returning the Labour Party and the candidates elected,” the statement added.
