PDP Chides INEC: You Have No Powers To Stop Our NEC

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, says it will go ahead with it National Executive Committee, NEC meeting slated for June 30, saying the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC cannot stop the meeting.

The magazine reported that INEC had in a response to a letter from the PDP dated May 30, notifying the commission of the planned NEC meeting insisted that the party could not go ahead.

INEC had cited the fact that the PDP letter was not co-signed by the party’s National Secretary Samuel Anyanwu alongside that of the National Chairman, Umar Damagu.

Anyanwu did not sign the letter because of the ongoing tussle over the National Secretary position between him and Sunday Ude-Okoye, a former National Youth Leader of the party. The Supreme Court had affirmed Anyanwu as the party’s scribe, even though the NEC of the party had recently appointed Setonji Koshoedo as the Acting National Secretary.

The party, the magazine learned, had at its 99^th NEC meeting held on May 30 agreed to hold another NEC meeting on June 30, to resolve some of the crisis rocking the party including the tussle over the National Secretary position.

But INEC had in a letter dated June 13 , signed by Halilu Aminu, the commission’s Acting Secretary informed the party that the meeting should be cancelled.

But speaking during a press conference in Abuja, the nation’s capital on Sunday, PDP National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologun Agba said the commission has no power to cancel its NEC meeting, noting that the meeting is not for the purpose of electing officials of the party.

According to him, the Supreme Court has ruled that political parties have the powers to conduct their internal affairs without external interventions. Ologunagba noted that the NEC is one of the routing meetings of the party which cannot be interrupted by any external body insisting that “If the court does not have jurisdiction over what happened with the internal affairs of the party, I wonder why INEC will have jurisdiction over it.”

The PDP spokesman stated further that it’s unconstitutional for the “Acting Secretary of INEC, Halilu Aminu,” to “unilaterally” cancel the upcoming NEC meeting saying the commission lacks the powers to do so.

The party stressed that “INEC cannot cancel our meetings.” It’s the prerogative of the party to so do, according to Ologunagba, who warned that INEC’s actions could undermine democracy and erode international confidence in its capacity to conduct  credible elections in the country.

Ologunagba: “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 meeting as 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.”

The PDP spokesman said the party has the power to designate anyone to sign the letter, wondering why the issue has become the headache of the commission, asking what INEC stands to gain in trying to ensure that the NEC did not hold.

According to Ologunagba, “Now, whoever signs the letter is an interrupter of the party.

“If the court does not have jurisdiction over 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 a party state, to 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 a 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.”