IGP should invite Alex Otti for organising illegal NEC meeting, says Labour Party NEC member

Avotu Johnson, a member of the Labour Party’s national executive council (NEC), has faulted the appointment of Senator Nenadi Usman as interim chair of the party’s national working committee (NWC), insisting the process breached the party’s constitution and warrants police intervention.

Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Wednesday, Johnson said Alex Otti, governor of Abia state, had no constitutional right to convene the NEC meeting that produced Usman’s leadership.

“Do you know the Labour Party has a constitution that is not being followed? All those people trying to set up a NEC pyramids are jokers. They are political jobbers,” he said.

“Nenadi Usman is not even a member of the Labour Party by the influence of her ward where she says she come from. So practically, how can the PDP or ADC people want to take over a party that they have not grown to where it is today.”

The NEC meeting, which took place on July 18, 2025, at Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja, was convened by Otti and reportedly endorsed Usman to lead the NWC in an interim capacity.

But Johnson insisted Otti lacked the legal backing to initiate such a process.

“Alex Oti is not a statutory member of the NEC and by the constitution of the Labour Party, it is only a statutory member that can call for a NEC meeting,” he said.

“And who are the statutory members? The chairman and secretary. And did you see any of them at the meeting?”

He said the absence of the national chairman and secretary renders the meeting invalid, describing it as “a kangaroo meeting.”

According to him, in a properly functioning system, law enforcement agencies would have taken action against those who flouted the party’s rules.

“If it were in a country that everything is working well, the Inspector General of Police should have invited, tried, arrested and prosecuted these people for going against the constitution,” he said.

The national chairman of the party is yet to comment publicly on the matter.