Fresh divisions have emerged within the Labour Party after a controversial petition alleged that senior party figures, including its 2023 presidential candidate Peter Obi, were plotting to overthrow President Bola Tinubu’s government.
On Tuesday, the factional National Publicity Secretary, Abayomi Arabambi, submitted a petition to security agencies, accusing Obi, Nigeria Labour Congress President Joe Ajaero, Senator Victor Umeh, and prominent members of the Nenadi Usman-led faction of orchestrating a nationwide “One-Million Man March” as part of a coup attempt.
Arabambi further claimed that the planned march was a cover to forcibly retake the party’s former national secretariat in Utako, Abuja, currently under the control of the Julius Abure-led faction.
However, Nenadi Usman, the interim national chairman of the Labour Party, firmly denied the allegations in a statement issued through her Senior Special Adviser on Media, Ken Asogwa. She condemned the claims as a “malicious and desperate frame-up” aimed at blackmailing and destabilising the opposition.
Usman unequivocally denied any knowledge of a planned protest.
“Let it be stated clearly that the Labour Party leadership is unaware of any protest being organised anywhere in Nigeria under the party’s banner,” she stated. “We have not authorised any person or group to demonstrate in the name of reclaiming a property we abandoned long ago.”
She clarified that since the Supreme Court ruling on April 4, 2025, which confirmed her leadership, the party had formally asked security agencies to enforce the judgment and remove what she described as “illegal occupants” from the former secretariat.
Due to the authorities’ failure to act, she explained, the party had since moved to a more secure office.
“It is therefore laughable and suspicious for anyone to suggest that the Labour Party intends to forcibly retake a building we no longer occupy,” she added.
Usman expressed grave concern over what she called the most dangerous part of the petition—its attempt to equate a property dispute with a coup attempt.
“What is most troubling is the baseless and reckless claim of a planned coup d’état against the Tinubu administration, lumped together with the so-called ‘One-Million Man March’,” she said. “How a protest to reclaim an office building translates into an attempt to overthrow the government defies logic and common sense.”
She likened the petition to tactics from a “dark era” when critics of the government were falsely accused of coup plots.
“This isn’t just a lie—it’s a calculated and dangerous move to implicate respected Labour Party leaders in a fabricated scheme to destabilise the country,” she said.
The party also raised concerns that operatives of the Department of State Services had already begun harassing some of its officials based on the petition.
“We warn that this path poses a grave threat to our democracy,” the statement read.
Urging security agencies to properly investigate the petition and identify those behind it, the Labour Party called on Nigerians to recognise the controversy as a “poorly scripted political drama.”
“We remain committed to democratic values and the rule of law, and we call on the public to see this for what it is: an act of cowardice and political desperation,” the statement concluded.