Labour Party Field Two Presidential Candidates for 2027 as Factions Unveil Separate Flagbearers

The leadership crisis rocking the Labour Party deepened on Saturday as two rival factions of the party held separate primaries and unveiled different presidential candidates for the 2027 general election.

The faction led by Julius Abure adopted its national youth leader, Prince Kennedy Ahanotu, as its consensus presidential candidate at a primary election held in Abuja.

In his acceptance speech, Ahanotu pledged to work towards uniting the party and strengthening its structures ahead of the next general election. “With a full sense of responsibility and unwavering commitment to our nation, I proudly accept the nomination of our great party, the Labour Party, as its presidential candidate for the 2027 general elections,” he said.

The party’s national chairman, Julius Abure, was represented at the event by the deputy national chairman, Ayo Olorunfemi, who formally announced Ahanotu as the party’s standard bearer.

Olorunfemi said, “Quite a number of aspirants showed interest in the presidential ticket. But the party settled for a young man. Having got these consensus votes and no opposition whatsoever, Prince Ahanotu is hereby returned elected as Labour Party presidential candidate.”

At nearly the same time, the rival faction led by Senator Nenadi Usman announced governance expert and policy strategist Dr. Chibuzo Okereke as its own presidential flagbearer through a separate consensus process.

The Usman-led faction’s national publicity secretary, Ken Asogwa, described Okereke as “one of Nigeria’s leading voices on public policy, legislative governance and institutional development.”

The parallel nominations have further exposed deep divisions within the opposition movement, with both camps laying claim to the party’s leadership ahead of the 2027 presidential election.

The development comes amid a separate zoning controversy within the party. A presidential aspirant from the North Central zone, Arc. Peter Agada, was disqualified from the primary after the party’s national convention resolved to zone the presidential ticket to the South.

Agada’s campaign council has rejected the disqualification, alleging that the party collected about N150 million from him for nomination forms and secretariat contributions before barring him from contesting.

The campaign council said in a statement, “There is no provision for zoning elective offices in the Labour Party constitution, past or current, including the one from the Umuahia convention.”

They warned that failure to reverse the decision would result in legal action.

Reacting to the disqualification, the party’s national publicity secretary, Ken Asogwa, defended the decision and said all aspirants were fully aware of the zoning arrangement before joining the race.

“We in the Labour Party have been transparent in our processes. The decision to zone and what led to it, as announced by our national chairman and ratified by our national convention, are all in the public domain,” Asogwa stated.