The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has dismissed the concerns raised by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over signatories inviting it to the 100th National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the party, saying that it was not bound to write the commission as the meeting was not for election, merger nor change of party officials.
Recall that the commission had in a letter dated June 13 2025, with Reference Number INEC/DEPM/PDP/286/III/80 raised concerns over a letter from the opposition party titled “Re: Notification of 100th National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)” which according to the commission was not signed by the party’s National Secretary.
The National Publicity Secretary of the party, Hon. Debo Ologunagba in a press conference on Sunday said that the motion for its 100th NEC meeting was unanimously moved by NEC members at the 99th NEC.
Quoting INEC guidelines, he noted that political parties were bound to give 21 days’ notice to the commission if the meeting will result in change of executives, merger or other decisions that will affect the records of INEC. He added that the party notified INEC as a matter of courtesy as none of those issues were on the table.
“At that meeting, a motion moved by the governor of Oyo State, seconded by the minority leader in the Senate, Senator Abba Moro, was approved that the 100th meeting should take place.
“And then there was a further direction that INEC should be informed by way of courtesy. It must be clear that INEC has no role whatsoever in participating in regular meetings of these bodies that I’ve drawn to you. They have no role at all. And then you can see some of the distressing things coming from INEC, which of course is very unfortunate,” Ologunagba said.
He quoted parts 2 and 12 of Election guidelines as published by INEC which clarified when the commission must not be notified if NEC or convention is not for election or merger purposes.
“However, there are exception and those are the issues that the Supreme Court has said, are internal affairs of the party.
“To the extent that when we’re holding NWC meetings, we don’t tell INEC. When we’re holding the regular NEC meetings, we don’t tell INEC. Except as provided for in the Electoral Act, that is the only time that you need to give a 21 days’ notice to INEC is as provided in the Electoral Act as well as the guideline of INEC.
“And the exception is this, we must make report to INEC if we have a convention that is elective, if we have congresses that is elected, if we have primaries where somebody will emerge as a candidate, because we have to make report to INEC. We are duty bound under the law and the regulation of INEC to say, we’re giving you 21 days notice.
“So if there are conventions that produce members of national working committees, they will be there to monitor and to observe the process, and so that when reports are being sent by the party it will tally with what they have.
“We never mentioned here that that we are conducting a meeting to elect officers. We didn’t say we are going to do primaries to get nominated for an elective position. We didn’t say we are meeting because we are considering possibility of merger. So where does Halilu Aminu, where did he get that from?
“So he decided on his own to import a purpose for a meeting to satisfy some vested interest, to ensure that they can continue to stifle the capacity of PDP to do his things in line with this Constitution.
“So how this acting secretary decided on his own to create and become a member of a political party and create for us an agenda that was not conveyed in the letter of the Acting National Chairman? And so the challenge for us now as a party is to say, who is the acting secretary of INEC? Who is he working for? What is the objective? Why is he creating an agenda for our party for a regular statutory meeting that is routine?” Ologunagba questioned
He stressed that who signs the letter of the party should not be of concern to INEC as the Supreme Court even ruled that the leadership of a political party is an internal affairs of the party which even the court has no jurisdiction.
“If the court will not have jurisdiction about what happened with the internal affairs of the party, I wonder why INEC will have jurisdiction over it. Because that is not the job of INEC. If we designate somebody to be the person to sign the letter, so be it. And that’s why it’s an internal affair of the party.” Ologunagba argued.
He said that the agenda of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is bent on foisting one party state on the country but added that it will not succeed.
“The letter was dated June 13th. It took INEC thirteen days. Why the desperation to kill political parties? All they need is one party state, stifle opposition. Which is just, like I’ve said earlier here, it’s wishful thinking, it’s hallucination. And INEC should know that this is hallucinating. This country will not go into a one-party state and nobody, no matter how powerful, whether you’re a president or you’re a combination of presidents, it will not work, ” he further stressed.
The 100th PDP NEC meeting is scheduled to hold on Monday June 30, at the party’s NEC hall, Abuja.
