Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, has called on the Peoples Democratic Party to resolve the ambiguity surrounding the identity of its National Secretary.
Yakubu made the call during a closed-door meeting with members of the PDP’s National Working Committee and other party stakeholders at INEC’s national headquarters in Abuja on Tuesday.
He noted that the Commission has received conflicting information from the party in recent months regarding the position.
“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 Ude Okoye was the Secretary,” Yakubu stated.
“Thereafter, the party changed its mind and said it was Anyanwu. Thereafter, the party changed its mind to say that it’s Mr Okoye 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.”
According to Yakubu, the PDP had reached out to INEC to engage on the matter as part of efforts to address the leadership dispute.
He referenced a similar recent meeting with the Labour Party, which approached the Commission to resolve its own internal issues.
Speaking earlier at the meeting, PDP Acting National Chairman, Iliya Umar Damagun, said the party was at INEC to address concerns arising from a letter sent to the Commission about its 100th National Executive Committee meeting.
“We’re here today as you are aware we have issues pertaining the status of our National Secretary,” Damagun said. “We’ve gone into litigation I think from the beginning of last year until when the Supreme Court, you know, made a pronouncement of which INEC was a party. We’re here today to discuss and interact with you sincerely because we had NEC and there was a decision of NEC which mandated me to sign a letter to avoid controversy. And I received your reply on that letter.”
Yakubu emphasized that according to INEC’s regulations and guidelines, official correspondence must be jointly signed by both the party chairman and the secretary. In this case, the absence of a clear signatory has complicated the Commission’s ability to act on the PDP’s communications.
