The crisis rocking the Labour Party (LP) has worsened as the Senator Esther Nenadi Usman-led interim National Working Committee (NWC) has called for the arrest of Julius Abure and the Acting Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mrs. May Agbamuche-Mbu, over alleged forgery of a court order.

Agbamuche-Mbu had earlier stated that Abure’s invitation to INEC’s meeting with political party leaders on October 14 was based on a purported court order from the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court, Gwagwalada. She challenged Senator Usman to present a valid court judgment in her favour, assuring that the commission would act accordingly.

However, in a statement issued on Thursday by her Senior Special Assistant on Media, Ken Asogwa, Senator Usman denied the existence of any such order, insisting that no court had granted Abure’s request to attend the INEC meeting.

According to her, Abure had filed a suit against INEC before Justice Kayode Agunloye of Court 40, FCT High Court, Gwagwalada (Suit No: CV/1914/2025), but the court did not make any consequential order against the commission.

“Our formal request for a Certified True Copy (CTC) of any order purportedly recognising him as chairman was met with a categorical confirmation from the court that no such order was ever granted,” the statement read.

Senator Usman challenged Mrs. Agbamuche-Mbu to produce the alleged court order she relied upon to recognise Abure, accusing her of aiding a “fabricated and non-existent order” to justify “an illegal and politically motivated act.”

She added that even if such an order existed, it would remain null and void in light of the Supreme Court’s judgment of April 4, 2025, which she said upheld her leadership of the party.

“The INEC acting leadership has willfully relied on a fabricated and non-existent order. It smacks of fraud, scant regard for the law, and partisanship for Mrs. Agbamuche-Mbu to have dragged INEC into this web of political criminal conspiracy,” the statement continued.

The Labour Party described the development as “shameful,” accusing the INEC official of attempting to “truncate Nigeria’s democracy.”

It called on law enforcement agencies to immediately arrest and prosecute Mrs. Agbamuche-Mbu “for complicity in the criminal forgery of a court order and acting as an accessory after the fact in a crime against the Nigerian people.”

The party also urged its supporters nationwide to begin mobilising for a peaceful occupation of INEC headquarters until the commission complies with the Supreme Court judgment and recognises Senator Usman as the legitimate national chairman.

Additionally, the statement appealed to the new INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, to “purge the commission of destabilising elements led by Mrs. Agbamuche-Mbu and her co-conspirators.”