BY JENNIFER EZIMAKOR 

The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has dismissed concerns raised by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over signatories inviting it to the 100th National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the party, saying that it was not bound to write the commission, as the meeting was not for election, merger nor change of party officials.

The commission had in a letter dated June 13th, 2025, with Reference Number INEC/DEPM/PDP/286/III/80 raised concerns over a letter from the opposition party titled “Re: Notification of 100th National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP)” which, according to the commission, was not signed by the party’s National Secretary.

The National Publicity Secretary of the party, Hon. Debo Ologunagba, in a press conference on Sunday, said that the motion for its 100th NEC meeting was unanimously moved by NEC members at the 99th NEC.

Quoting INEC guidelines, he said that political parties were bound to give 21 days’ notice to the commission if the meeting resulted in change of executives, merger or other decisions that will affect the records of INEC. He added that the party notified INEC as a matter of courtesy as none of those issues were on the table.

“At that meeting, a motion moved by the governor of Oyo State, seconded by the minority leader in the Senate, Senator Abba Moro, was approved that the 100th meeting should take place.

“And then there was a further direction that INEC should be informed by way of courtesy. It must be clear that INEC has no role whatsoever in participating in regular meetings of these bodies that I’ve drawn to you. They have no role at all. And then you can see some of the distressing things coming from INEC, which of course is very unfortunate”.