*Insists no room for one party state in Nigeria
By Lateef Ibrahim, Abuja
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has vowed to go ahead with its 100th National Executive Committee, NEC, meeting scheduled for the 30th of this month (June, 2025) regardless of the disapproval of same by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The National Publicity Secretary of the party, Hon Debo Ologunagba, while addressing journalists on the issue on Sunday in Abuja, accused the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) of working in cahoot with INEC to frustrate the meeting in particular and the PDP in general.
Ologunagba, a lawyer and former member of the House of Representatives, pointed out all the NEC members and other stakeholders of the party are fully prepared and ready for the meeting.
The PDP, it will be recalled, had on the 30th of May, 2025, written to INEC, informing the commission of its decision to hold its 100th NEC meeting on June 30, this year.
The letter was signed by the acting National Chairman of the PDP, Amb Ilya Damagum
However, the commission in its reply, maintained that the letter ought to have been jointly signed by both the National Chairman and National Secretary of the party for it to be deemed valid.
The PDP’s letter to INEC reads in part, “We write to formally inform and invite the INEC, that the leadership of our great party, the People’s Democratic Party, has scheduled our 100th National Executive Committee meeting to hold on Monday, June 30th, 2025, at the National Secretariat of our party, Wadata Plaza, Zone 5, Abuja.
“This is for the Commission’s information and necessary actions, please.
“While thanking you for your usual cooperation, kindly acknowledge the receipt of this letter and please accept the assurances of our highest regard”, it said.
Ologunagba explained that INEC did not reply to the PDP’s letter until
June 13th, this year.
According to him, “It took INEC thirteen days to reply. Why the desperation to kill political parties?
“All they want is one party state, stifle opposition. Which is, just like I’ve said earlier here, is wishful thinking, it’s hallucination. And INEC should know that this is hallucination.
“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 said.
Continuing, Ologunagba said, ‘The National Working Committee, under section 29 (3) (of PDP constitution) is expected to meet at least twice a month, every fortnight, because they are the managers of the party.
“Then section 34, subsection 4, talks about the National Executive Committee meeting. The National Executive Committee shall meet at least once every quarter at the instance of the National Chairman or at the request of a third of NEC members, who shall notify the Chairman at least seven days prior to this meeting and an emergency meeting may be summoned by the National Executive Committee.
“At that meeting (the last NEC meeting of PDP, which was the 99th 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.
“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 elective, 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.
“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 (the acting National Secretary of INEC who signed the commission’s letter in reply to the PDP’s letter), where did he get that from?
“So he decided on his own to import a purpose for a meeting to satisfy some vested interest on what we are getting from the grapevine to ensure that they can continue to stifle the capacity of PDP to do its things in line with this Constitution.
“For the record, there have been several times we have issued notices of 21 days notice for congresses or other meetings that require those things to INEC and we have had cause, at some point, to even shift those dates.
“So how this acting secretary decide 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?
“The bigger dimension to the whole matter is that INEC has partners all over the world. They have various bodies and organizations in the world that is supporting INEC’s capacity to be able to remain independent, to be technically capable, and to ensure that they meet with the electoral process. Those partners, those institutions, they’re interested”, he said.
Ologunagba stated the fact that the PDP is gradually solving its problems is what is now giving APC sleepless night.
His words, ” Our reconciliation committee and others are working. They are doing their work. So they are working. They’re doing their job. And we’re comfortable with their ability to have this.
“That’s why APC is jittery. Now, we have capacity within us. I’ve said this several times. We have capacity to resolve our issues using the mechanism and the processes we have in the party.
