The national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), on Tuesday, met with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over the lingering crisis in its national secretary position.
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.
The meeting followed a letter to INEC by PDP inviting the commission to its 100th NEC meeting scheduled for June 30.
The letter dated May 30 was only signed by the PDP acting national chairman, Umar Damagum.
In its reply dated June 13, 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 both the national chairman and national secretary shall jointly sign the notice for convention, congress, conference, or meeting and submit the same to it.
Earlier at the meeting, Damagum had said that they were at INEC headquarters to enable the party’s leaders to interact with the commission to guide them on decisions regarding the status of its national secretary.
The duo of Sunday Udeh-Okoye and Samuel Anyanwu are laying claim to the PDP national secretary position.
Damagum said: “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 have found ourselves in.”
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.
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He recalled that not long ago, INEC received similar visitors from the Labour Party.
“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 June 30, 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 the secretary is,” he said.
Yakubu recalled that in the last couple of months, the commission had received about five letters from the PDP on the party’s secretary.
“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.
“The last letter from the party has no secretary at all. It was only signed by the chairman, which we responded to, 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,” the INEC chairman stated.
After the closed-door session, Damagum said the party’s leadership would meet with the larger PDP stakeholders on the matter and return to INEC on Thursday.
Also at the meeting were the Chairman of PDP Governors’ Forum, Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State, Governors Seyi Makinde (Oyo), Dauda Lawal (Zamfara) State and Caleb Muftwang (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 Ben Obi, among others.
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