The national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), on Tuesday, met with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over the lingering crisis in the position of its national secretary.
The meeting at the INEC headquarters in Abuja, which started at 2.30 p.m., later went into a closed-door session immediately after the opening ceremony.
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The meeting followed a letter to INEC by PDP inviting the commission to its 100th NEC meeting scheduled for 30 June.
The letter dated 30 May was only signed by the PDP acting National Chairman, Umar Damagum.
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In its reply dated 13 June, INEC notified PDP that its letter was not in compliance with the requirements of part 2(12)3 of the Regulations and Guidelines for Political Parties, 2022.
The commission stated that the national chairman and national secretary shall jointly sign the notice for convention, congress, conference or meeting and submit it to the commission.
Earlier at the meeting, Mr Damagum said that they were at INEC headquarters to enable the party’s leaders to interact with the commission and guide them in making decisions regarding the status of its national secretary.
“We are here today, pertaining to the status of our national secretary.
“We have gone into litigations, I think, from the beginning of last year until when the Supreme Court made a pronouncement of which INEC was a party to that litigation.
“We are here to interact sincerely with you off-camera so that we will be guided on this problem of national secretary which we found ourselves into,” Mr Damagum said.
The INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, noted that the meeting was at the instance of PDP, saying that as the regulator of political parties, the commission’s door was always open to party leaders.
He recalled that INEC received similar visitors from the Labour Party not long ago.
“The acting chairman had stated the purpose of the meeting which is to ascertain the status of the party’s national secretary.
“I am glad that the NEC meeting, which you shall be holding on 30 June, is the 100th meeting of the NEC of the party, meaning that 99 times in the past you fully complied by inviting us via a letter signed by the chairman and secretary.
“So, there are issues to discuss. And we look forward to this important clarification from the party as to who is the secretary,” he said.
Mr Yakubu recalled that in the last couple of months, the commission had received about five letters from the PDP as to who the party’s secretary is.
“In the last couple of months, we received letters from the party, saying that one Mr Sunday Udeh-Okoye was the secretary.
“ Thereafter, the party changed its mind and said it was Samuel Anyanwu.
“The party later changed its mind to say that it was Mr Setonji Koshoedo., And again the party changed its mind to say Anyanwu.
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“The last letter from the party actually has no secretary at all. It was only signed by the chairman, to whom we responded, but we are here as the registrar and regulator of political parties.
“We hope when we go into the working session, we will fully understand where you are coming from and what more you expect from us as the registrar and regulator of political parties,” Mr Yakubu said.
Outcome
After the closed-door section, Mr Damagum said the party’s leadership would meet with the larger PDP stakeholders and return to INEC on Thursday.
In attendance at the meeting apart from Mr Damagum were the Chairman of PDP Governors Forum, Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State, Governors Seyi Makinde of Oyo, Dauda Lawal of Zamfara State, and Caleb Muftwang of Plateau.
Others were former Senate President, Bukola Saraki, former Governor of Kaduna State, Ahmed Makarfi, Senate Minority Leader, Abba Moro, former Governor of Bayelsa, Seriake Dickson, PDP National Organising Secretary, Umar Bature, and a former interim national secretary of the party, Ben Obi, among others.
(NAN)
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