Interim national chairman of the Labour Party (LP), Senator Nenadi Usman says it would be “legally impossible” for former governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi to secure the party’s 2027 presidential ticket, citing strict membership registration deadlines under the Electoral Act.
Obi contested the 2023 presidential election on the platform of the Labour Party, finishing third behind former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and eventual winner of the general election President Bola Tinubu.
The ex-governor, however, defected from the LP in December 2025 pitching his tent with the African Democratic Congress (ADC), where he is one of the hopefuls for the opposition coalition’s 2027 presidential ticket.
Amid a leadership crisis within the ADC that has culminated in the derecognition of its factions by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), speculations are rife that Obi may be contesting a return to the LP to actualise his political ambition.
Reacting to such permutations during an interview with Arise TV on Wednesday, Usman disclosed that the party’s register would be closed 21 days before its primaries and submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission.
She said, “Well it will be too late actually for him to come back because if you look at the act now, at some point we close the register.
“Once we close the register 21 days before primaries, submit the register, the e-register to INEC, you can’t come from behind the door for us to register you and for you to contest the elections. That would be impossible, legally impossible anyway.”
Usman, who acknowledged that Obi had been instrumental to surge in the party’s popularity, said she herself had been persuaded by the former Anambra governor to defect from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the Labour Party ahead of the last general election.
“Even me, he convinced me to come with him to Labour Party. Convinced me and not just me, many people that are in Labour Party today were convinced by, let’s join Peter, go to Labour Party because we believed in equity and fair play,” she said.
The LP chairman explained that her decision to leave the PDP was rooted in the belief that the party had failed to zone its presidential ticket to the south.
“We believe that PDP should have zoned the seat to the south. But since they left it open and said there were no zoning and a northerner, they were trying to field a northerner, we felt no, it’s not fair. Though I’m a northerner but I felt it was not fair,” Usman said.
