INEC Meets PDP Leaders to Address Oversight Invitation Dispute

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) convened a meeting with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leadership following complaints from the opposition party that INEC had failed to honour an invitation to oversee its planned congress.

Zainab Aminu Abubakar, an INEC publicity officer, told BBC Hausa that the meeting “was convened at the instance of the PDP because it had some complaints, and the chairman gave them a listening ear.” According to her, the PDP alleged it had formally invited INEC to monitor its internal congress, but did not receive a favourable response.

The INEC chairman clarified that under the Electoral Act, the commission cannot accept invitations from political parties unless they bear the signatures of both the national chairman and national secretary. “The invitation sent to us by the PDP was not endorsed by the national secretary,” Abubakar explained.

After the discussion, PDP acting National Chairman Umar Iliya Damagum said the party would consider the outcome internally before issuing a formal response.

“We had a meeting with INEC, so we’ll go and deliberate on it and come back with the decision we reached,” he stated.