From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The Acting National Chairman of the embattled Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Umar Damagun, has promised to deliberate on the outcome of the meeting held with the leadership of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) with the larger members of the opposition party.
He spoke to newsmen on the sidelines after the PDP stakeholders’ meeting held at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja on Tuesday but failed to give more details on the outcome of the meeting.
The high-calibre party’s delegates in attendance included the National Chairman, former Senate President Bukola Saraki, serving senators Sereke Dickson and Abba Moro, four governors—Bala Mohammed of Bauchi, Dauda Lawal of Zamfara, Seyi Makinde of Oyo, and Caleb Mutfwang of Plateau—and other party chieftains like Senator Ben Obi and Ahmed Makarfi, among others.
Conspicuously missing at the meeting were the duo of Senator Samuel Nnaemeka Anyanwu and Udeh Okoye, and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), among others.
Speaking in his opening remarks, the PDP Acting Chairman hinged their mission on ascertaining the status of the party’s national secretary and the position of the commission concerning the party’s proposed National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting scheduled for the end of this month.
Damagun said, “I want to say that the meeting went very well. We will now take the resolutions we agreed to the larger house to deliberate on it.”
Earlier in his opening remarks, the opposition party’s boss said, “First, I want to use this opportunity to thank you and your members for giving us this opportunity to interact with you. I believe this is one of its kind, maybe the first time. Normally, when we have issues, the party always comes and interacts with INEC, but today you have given us the opportunity with our leaders from various organs of the party to be here.
“I will not stop without thanking you sincerely for this opportunity. We are here today, as you are aware, because we have issues pertaining to the status of our national secretary. We have gone into litigation from the beginning of last year until when the Supreme Court made a pronouncement of which INEC was a party.
“We are also here to discuss and interact with you sincerely because we had a NEC meeting and there was a decision of NEC which mandated me to sign a letter to avoid controversy. I received your reply on that letter,” he said.
Speaking further, he said, “I didn’t ask to be guided by certain rules, so we are here to interact sincerely with you off camera so that it will guide us when we get back to have a position that will further help in taking these positions that we found ourselves in.”
In his response, INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, frowned at the inconsistent position of the party’s leadership over the crisis surrounding its national secretary, promising that it would form part of the discussion during the meeting.
“Let me, on behalf of the commission, welcome the acting national chairman and other stakeholders to the commission. This meeting is at the instance of the party. They requested to interact with us, and our doors are always open to meet with leaders of political parties in our capacity as the registrar and regulator of political parties in Nigeria.
“You may recall that not long ago, we received similar visitors from the Labour Party. So, when the PDP said it was going to visit, we welcomed them. The acting national chairman has stated the purpose of the meeting to discuss the status of the party’s national secretary, particularly regarding the letter we sent to the party on the request for us to monitor their 100th NEC meeting, which was only signed by the chairman and not the chairman and secretary as provided in our regulations and guidelines.
“I am glad that that meeting was the 100th meeting of the NEC of the party, meaning that 99 times in the past you fully complied by inviting us by means of a letter signed by chairman and secretary of the party. So, there are issues to discuss, and we look forward to this important clarification from the party as to who is the secretary.
“In the last couple of months, we received letters from the party saying that one Mr Udeh Okoye was the secretary. Thereafter, the party changed its mind and said it was sent to Anyanwu. Thereafter, the party changed its mind to say that it’s Mr Shokwe and again the party changed its mind to say it’s Anyanwu. And the last letter from the party actually has no secretary at all.
“It was only signed by the chairman, which we responded to. But we are here as the registrar and regulators of political parties, and 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,” he said.
