The Labour Party has refuted allegations that its top figures are plotting a violent overthrow of the Tinubu administration, describing the claims as a “desperate frame-up” intended to distract Nigerians from the country’s worsening challenges.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, July 29, Ken Eluma Asogwa, Senior Special Adviser on Media to the party’s Interim National Chairman, dismissed the accusations as “reckless, laughable and deeply suspicious.”
The allegations, reportedly contained in a petition to the National Security Adviser, claim that Labour Party leaders, including former presidential candidate Peter Obi, NLC President Joe Ajaero, Senator Victor Umeh, Professor Theophilus Ndubuaku, and Dr. Yunusa Tanko, are planning a “One Million Man March” to stage a coup and reclaim the party’s former secretariat in Utako, Abuja.
But Asogwa described the story as fiction.
“Let it be stated unequivocally: the Labour Party is not involved in any protest, nor are we interested in reclaiming a property we abandoned months ago,” he said, referring to the secretariat now occupied by former chairman Julius Abure.
He explained that following the Supreme Court ruling of April 4 which affirmed Senator Nenadi Usman as Interim National Chairman, the party had written to security agencies to enforce the judgment. When there was no response, they simply moved to a more secure location.
READ ALSO: Labour Party Declares 2027 Presidential Ticket Open, Not Obi’s Birthright
“What is alarming is the dangerous linkage between an imaginary protest and a treasonable offence. How a peaceful demonstration — which we did not even plan — suddenly becomes an attempt to topple a government defies logic,” the statement read.
The party also raised concerns over alleged harassment of its leaders by the Department of State Services (DSS), warning that such moves resembled the repressive tactics of military regimes.
“This is a throwback to the dark days of phantom coup plots. We’ve seen this before — where political dissenters are framed with treason to silence them,” the statement added.
It called on security agencies to uncover those behind the petition and resist being used for political persecution.
“We urge the Nigerian people to see this for what it is — a poorly scripted act of desperation designed to distract from the real issues facing the nation,” said Asogwa.
The Labour Party reaffirmed its commitment to peaceful political engagement, democracy, and the rule of law.