Labour Party Rules Out Obi's 2027 Return

Nigeria's Labour Party has ruled out the possibility of former presidential candidate Peter Obi returning to contest the 2027 election on its platform, citing strict electoral deadlines that would make such a move legally impossible.

In an interview on Arise Television on Wednesday, interim national chairperson Nenadi Usman explained that the party's membership register must close 21 days before primaries and be submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission. "It will actually be too late for him to come back," Usman said. "At some point, we close the register, and once we close it 21 days before the primaries and submit the e-register to INEC, you can't come from behind the door for us to register you and for you to contest. That would be legally impossible."

Obi, who finished third in the 2023 presidential race as the Labour Party's candidate, left the party in December 2025 amid its ongoing leadership crisis and joined the African Democratic Congress. His departure followed months of internal turmoil that weakened the party's structure, including mass defections and a reduced presence in the National Assembly. Recent challenges within the ADC, including the INEC's...