Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja 

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has told the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that its notice for its 100th National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting is not in compliance with the requirement of the Regulations and Guidelines for political parties.

The Acting Secretary to the commission, Haliru Aminu, notified the party in a letter dated June 13, 2025, addressed to the National Chairman of the PDP with the requirement of part 2(12)3 of the Regulations and Guidelines for political parties, 2022.

The letter read: “Notice of 100th National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Your Letter on the above subject refers. 

“The commission draws your attention that the notice is not in compliance with the requirement of part 2(12)3 of the Regulations and Guidelines for political parties, 2022 that provides ‘the National Chairman and National Secretary of the party shall jointly sign the notice of convention, congress, conference of meeting and submit same to the commission. Be guided. Please accept the assurance of the commission’s high regards.”

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the commission, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, while speaking at the groundbreaking ceremony of the commission’s office, said the commission has been grappling with inadequate office accommodation. 

He noted: “Our present national headquarters is severely congested. Commissioned in December 1997, it was originally planned to cater for eight commission members (a Chairman and seven full-time National Commissioners), ten Departments/Directorates and 500 staff. 

“Since then, the activities of the commission have become more extensive and the staff strength at the headquarters has more than doubled. Today, there are 13 full-time commission members (a Chairman and 12 National Commissioners), 22 Departments/Directorates and 1,048 staff. 

“Consequently, every facility is overstretched from offices to meeting rooms for the commission’s 15 standing committees and other activities, including regular engagements with stakeholders.”

Yakubu stressed that general staff meetings always take place outside the commission, adding that in response, the commission was compelled to rent two buildings in Wuse Zone II to ease the situation. 

The chairman added that over the last 10 years, the electoral body has made every effort to alleviate the situation until sometime last year when the Ministry of the Federal Capital Territory came to its rescue. 

According to Yakubu, “I wish to make it clear that this is not the first time that the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) is constructing an office for the Electoral Commission. 

“When the commission relocated its headquarters from Lagos to Abuja in 1991, it was the FCDA that provided it with offices in Garki to accommodate the national headquarters as well as the FCT office.

“When the facility became overstretched, the FCDA again built our present headquarters. The building in Garki now operates exclusively as our FCT Office. 

“In fact, today’s groundbreaking event is the third time in the last 34 years that the FCDA, in the discharge of its responsibilities, is stepping in to either provide office accommodation or alleviate the commission’s space constraint.

“As the end user of the facility, our technical department submitted the concept of the proposed building which is what the FCT is currently executing. 

“We made provision for offices, meeting rooms, conference rooms, a 1,000-seat auditorium and offices for some of our IT-based facilities such as the Election Monitoring and Support Centre (EMSC).”

Yakubu noted that beyond these facilities, the building plan has provision for a museum to serve as a repository for the physical and digital history of elections and electoral activities in Nigeria.

This, he said, would afford citizens, particularly students that regularly visit the commission on excursion, the opportunity to appreciate the evolution of our electoral history as is the case in many jurisdictions around the world.

Yakubu noted that the main building opposite the present site shall remain the national headquarters of the commission. 

He said when completed, the new building would  complement the main building.

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