The opposition Peoples Democratic Party has slated Wednesday, April 17th as its National Caucus meeting, while while the Board of Trustees and the National Executive Committee meetings are billed for Thursday, April 18.
NEC is the major organ of the party, which is made up of all party state governors, President, and former presidents, serving and former principal officers of the National Assembly, all state chairmen, members of the NWC, former governors, serving and former senators, serving and former members house of representatives and former NWC members among many others.
Meanwhile, as captured in the PDP 2017 constitution as amended, Section 4, Part VIII reads, “The National Executive Committee shall meet at least once in every quarter at the instance of the National Party Chairman or the request of two-thirds of its membership, who shall notify the Chairman at least seven days before the meeting; and an emergency meeting be summoned by the National Chairman having regard to all the circumstances of the agenda.”
Recall that the last PDP NEC meeting, the 97th was convened by the suspended National Chairman, Senator Iyorchia Ayu, on September 22, 2022.
Against this backdrop, a governorship aspirant in Ogun State during the 2023 general elections, Segun Sowunmi, took legal action against the acting National Chairman, Umar Damagum, and other members of the National Working Committee for their inability to convene the 98th NEC meeting.
Represented by a legal team of 13 lawyers led by Anderson Asemota, Sowunmi filed a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/70/2024 seeking to unseat Damagum from his position for alleged negligence of duties.
In a suit still pending before the court, he is requesting the court to stop the defendants from continuing to perform their duties until the meeting is convened.
Earlier, the PDP Governors Forum, headed by the Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed, appealed to the NWC about a month ago to initiate the process for convening meetings of the party’s various organs, from the Caucus to the NEC promptly.
In a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, on Friday, notified all party members of the scheduled dates.
“National Working Committee of our great party, the Peoples Democratic Party has scheduled the 98th National Executive Committee meeting of our party for Thursday, April 18, 2024.
The NEC meeting comes after the meeting of the Board of Trustees (BoT) on the same date, Thursday, April 18, 2024.” The statement added in parts.
It statement went further to notify that the BoT meeting will hold at the NEC Hall of the PDP National Secretariat at 10:00 am after which the NEC meeting commences at 2:00 pm at the same venue.
The statement reiterated; “Consequently, the meeting of National Caucus of our party has been scheduled for Wednesday, April 17, 2024.
The NWC urges all members of NEC, BoT and the National Caucus to please take note of the scheduled dates accordingly”.
