INEC can’t stop our 100th NEC meeting – PDP
By Tunde Opalana
Major opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party has said that its 100th meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC) scheduled to hold on June 30 cannot be stopped by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
According to the party, the comments nh NEC meeting was properly convened and notice to that effect was properly submitted to INEC in accordance with th Electoral Act 2022 and other extant electoral laws particularly INEC’s regulation on political parties.
National Publicity Secretary of the party, Hon. Debo Ologunagba said this on Sunday during an interactive session with the media at the PDP national headquarters in Abuja.
He categorically stated that INEC has no authority on how the party convene it’s meeting and have no say in the internal maters of political parties.
Ologunagba specifically said that INEC has no role to play at the meeting than observatory role.
He described INEC’s Acting Secretary, Halilu Aminu, as playing a unilaterally role depicting an attempt to define the purpose of the party’s meeting.
Recall that INEC in a letter dated June 13 pointed out to the party what it observed as PDP’s failure to abide by directive of the regulatory body in a letter dated 30th May 2025 notifying INEC of the coming 100th NEC meeting.
The election management body therefore noted that the letter was not properly submitted with the sole signature of Ambassador Ilya Damagum, acting National Chairman without the signature of the National Secretary.
Reacting to INEC’s observation, disproved the Commission, saying INEC’s role is limited to being notified about conventions, congresses, or primaries where party officers or candidates are elected.
He stated, “INEC has no role in the regular meetings of the NWC or NEC. These are internal party matters, as clearly established by the Supreme Court in numerous rulings.
“INEC cannot cancel our meetings. It is the party’s prerogative to decide such matters. INEC has no authority to do so. We are planning to hold our meetingas scheduled, if anything changes we will brief you.”
“We did not state that the meeting was for electing officers, conducting primaries, or nominating candidates for elective positions. Yet, the Acting Secretary of INEC, Halilu Aminu, decided to unilaterally assign a purpose to our meeting.”
Thev 100th NEC meeting he said, will assess the progress made in preparations for the upcoming national convention, including reports from the Zoning and Convention Committees established during the 99th NEC meeting.
“At the 99th NEC meeting, it was unanimously agreed to schedule the next meeting for the 30th of June. The constitution of the Zoning Committee and the Convention Committee was approved. Consultations with various organs of the party and stakeholders are ongoing,” he said.
Ologunagba added that INEC has no role in the statutory meetings of the NWC and NEC, except when the meeting involves electing party officers, discussing mergers with other parties, or presenting new candidates for elections.
He stated, “Now, whoever signs the letter is an interrupter of the party. 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.
“Why the desperation to kill political parties? All they want is one party state, stifle opposition. Which is just, like I have 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.
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“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 on what we are getting from the Grapevine to ensure that they can continue to stifle the capacity of PDP to do his 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 calls 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 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.”
