The Labour Party (LP) candidate for the November 8, 2025, gubernatorial poll in Anambra State, Dr. George Muoghalu, has dismissed insinuations in some quarters that the purported leadership crisis in the national headquarters of the party will negatively impact his electoral fortunes.
Recall that barely 24 hours after the Supreme Court quashed the Court of Appeal ruling that declared Mr. Julius Abure as the authentic national chairman of LP, Moughalu, a former Managing Director of Nigeria Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), emerged as the standard bearer of the party for the governorship ballot.
The party went into two factions, when its presidential candidate in the 2023 presidential poll, Mr. Peter Obi, joined the Abia State governor, Dr. Alex Chioma Otti, alongside other stakeholders, to set up a national Caretaker Committee led by Senator Nenadi Esther Usman.
While the stakeholders founded the caretaker Committee citing the expired tenure of its former National Chairman, Abure, the embattled chairman rebuffed them and orchestrated a controversial convention in Nnewi to perpetuate himself in office for a second term.
Abure’s brinkmanship paid off when the Court of Appeal, Abuja division, upheld his election into office for a second term and pronounced him as duly elected, even as the Nenadi Usman-led Caretaker Committee appealed against the judgment at the nation’s apex court.
Last Friday, the Supreme Court set aside the Court of Appeal ruling, stressing that the appellate court lacked jurisdiction to determine the matter.
The Supreme Court also declared that the leadership of every political party is the internal business of the members, even as the court enjoined politicians to learn to vacate elective offices when their mandate runs its full course.
Both factions welcomed the ruling, but while the Caretaker Committee declared the judgment as a no-victor-no-vanquished verdict, Abure’s supporters maintained that the judgment did not say anything new, insisting that the national leadership structure subsists.
Many party faithful saw the apex court’s pronouncement as a much-awaited intervention, saying that it has rekindled hope and revived national enthusiasm for a credible alternative political platform.
Coming barely eight months to the Anambra State off-cycle gubernatorial contest, the party’s standard bearer, Muoghalu noted with glee that since Anambra State is the stronghold of LP, the confidence reposed in him by party delegates is a pointer to his imminent victory in the November 8 ballot.
