PDP, LP boycott INEC consultative meeting over leadership crises

144The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP), the country’s main opposition parties, were noticeably absent from INEC’s second regular consultative meeting with political partiesThe absence of the two frontline opposition political parties may be connected to the leadership crises engulfing the first and second runners-up in the 2023 presidential election.The leadership crisis in the PDP led to a meeting of party leaders and critical stakeholders with INEC after the latter rejected the former’s notice of the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting.According to reports, INEC rejected the notice it received from the PDP for the NEC meeting because it fell short of the requirements of Part 2(12)3 of the Regulations and Guidelines for Political Parties, 2022. In a letter dated 13 June 2025, addressed to the PDP national chairman and signed by INEC acting secretary Haliru Aminu, the commission said the party’s national chairman and secretary were required to jointly sign the notice for NEC.At the meeting with the PDP hierarchy on Tuesday, the INEC chairman expressed concern over the inconsistency in the party’s communication, saying the commission received letters naming different individuals as national secretary.“In the last couple of months, we received letters from the party indicating Mr Udeh Okoye as the secretary. Subsequently, the name was changed to Senator Samuel Anyanwu, then to Mr Koshoedo, and later, it was reverted to Senator Anyanwu.”Meanwhile, 11 National Working Committee members have resisted the attempt by the party’s acting national chairman, AmbUmar Illiya Damagum, to reinstate Anyanwu as national secretary and cancel next Monday’s PDP NEC meeting.On its part, the LP is divided between the Julius Abure-led National Working Committee (NWC), whose leadership was sacked by the Supreme Court on 4 April, and a National Caretaker Committee (NCC) led by Senator Nenadi Usman. Attempts to get a reaction from PDP and LP on their absence from yesterday’s meeting were futile as calls and messages sent to their spokespersons were not answered as of press time.

PDP Crisis

Meanwhile, the warring PDP camps maintained their factional positions on Anyanwu’s return and the cancellation of the NEC meeting.This comes as the PDP Board of Trustees (BoT) insisted that the contentious 100th NEC meeting on Monday, 30 June 2025, will proceed as scheduled.The Board also dismissed Anyanwu’s return as PDP national secretary, noting that the deputy national secretary, Arc. Setonji Koshoedo, remains the acting national secretary of the party pending any contrary decision formally taken and communicated by the appropriate party organ. In a statement signed by its chairman, Senator Adolphus Wabara, the Board further said the cancellation of the NEC meeting and reinstatement of Anyanwu as announced by the PDP acting national chairman Damagum was unconstitutional.The Board added that the decisions on the 100th NEC meeting and the party’s national secretary status were taken at the 99th NEC.The party’s advisory body, therefore, said Damagum did not have the authority to override a collective decision of the NEC, as such conduct amounts to an affront to the NEC’s constitutional authority and the party’s collective will.The crack in PDP’s national leadership came to the fore on Wednesday immediately after Damagum announced the cancellation of the 100th NEC and the return of Anyanwu as the party’s national scribe. The National Working Committee was immediately divided between those who supported the announcement and those who opposed it. The split, it was learnt, reflects the division within the PDP governors’ forum over the issues. The opposing camps had yet to soften their stance on the two contentious issues as of yesterday.A party source confided in LEADERSHIP Friday that the situation can best be described as a stalemate because the sides, led by governors, had refused to back down.But intervening in the matter on Thursday, the party’s BoT insisted that, going by the PDP Constitution, the pronouncements by the “acting national chairman” are null, void, and of no effect, being inconsistent with and in gross violation of the express provisions of the Constitution of the PDP (as amended in 2017).“For the avoidance of doubt, the National Executive Committee (NEC) is the party’s highest decision-making organ, second only to the National Convention. By Section 31(3) of the PDP Constitution, the resolution of the NEC at its 99th NEC meeting held on Tuesday, 27 May 2025, to hold its 100th meeting on Monday, 30 June 2025, is binding on all organs and members of the PDP.“To this effect, being a NEC decision, no organ, group, or individual has the power or competence to cancel, adjust, or postpone the 100th NEC meeting already scheduled by NEC to hold on Monday, 30 June 2025.”Consequently, it held that it was not within the authority of the acting national chairman to override a collective decision of the NEC, as such would amount to an affront to the constitutional authority of NEC and the collective will of the party.It went on to describe the statement purporting to reinstate Senator Anyanwu as national secretary as equally spurious and offensive to the spirit and letter of the PDP Constitution, the outcome of the Supreme Court judgment, and the resolution of the party’s NEC. “The decision of the National Working Committee (NWC) at its 600th meeting directing the deputy national secretary to act as national secretary by the extant powers of the NWC remains valid, having not been set aside by the NWC or NEC; the attempt by Amb. Damagum to overturn that decision is a gross abuse of office.“The Board of Trustees, being the conscience of the party, cannot stand idly by and watch the party descend into chaos through acts of impunity, unilateralism, and disregard for constitutional procedures.” The PDP BoT affirmed that the 100th NEC meeting will proceed as scheduled on Monday, 30 June 2025, and all NEC members were advised to disregard any contradictory notice or statement regarding it. It further declared that Deputy National Secretary Setonji Koshoedo would remain the acting national secretary of the PDP pending any contrary decision formally taken and communicated by the appropriate party organ.It advised party loyalists to always be guided in their actions by the supremacy of the Constitution of the PDP and resist any attempt to drag the party into an avoidable crisis.The BoT reiterated that no individual interest is greater than the institutional integrity of the PDP, adding that as the party’s moral compass, it would continue to defend due process, uphold party supremacy, and protect the democratic ethos upon which the PDP is founded. But the PDP national vice chairman, North-West, Senator Bello Hayatu Gwarzo, and the national treasurer,Hon. Ahmed Yayari Mohammed, have thrown their weight behind Damagum, adding that he had the mandate to make the pronouncements he did.Gwarzo and Mohammed, in separate statements, said the decision to recall Senator Anyanwu did not happen in a vacuum.They said that after Tuesday’s interactive session between the party and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) leaderships and a follow-up meeting on Wednesday at the PDP national secretariat, the acting national chairman of the party was mandated to issue the statement recalling the national secretary.