Nigeria’s main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has insisted that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has no power to halt its upcoming National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting.
Speaking at a press conference in Abuja, on Sunday, National Publicity Secretary of the party, Hon. Debo Ologunagba, said preparations for the meeting were in top gear.
Recently, INEC wrote a letter to the PDP complaining that its notice of NEC meeting was not in order, as it was not signed by the National Chairman and National Secretary.
But Ologunagba said INEC’s Acting Secretary, Halilu Aminu, who signed the letter, was only trying to assist the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to perpetuate its one-party State mission.
The PDP spokesman said, by Nigerian law and the PDP constitution, INEC’s role is limited to being notified about conventions, congresses, or primaries where party officers or candidates are to elected or a merger is expected to take place.
He also said President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the ruling APC not to take the recent defections into the party as a sign of victory, vowing that the President will only serve one term.
“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.”
Speaking about the recent defections, Ologunagba said, “What will be on the ballot is the Nigerian people. The good thing is that Nigerian people are not defecting. You know why? Because they can’t defect to hunger. They cannot defect to insecurity. They can’t defect to life-discounting experiences on a daily basis. They cannot defect to the fact that the disunity of the country is expanding on a daily basis.
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“You are in a country where you are buying an aircraft of 360 billion Naira, when people can’t send their kids to school. When they can’t go to hospital.
“APC should know that President Tinubu is a one-term president. With what’s happening in this country today, those are recipes for one term.
“Because people are dying. People cannot feed. They can’t send their kids to school. They cannot even buy their medication. People are dying by instalment on a daily basis. And if you don’t change that, that is what is called one-term president.”
