ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

The National Leader of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Seriake Dickson, and other leaders of the NDC, on Monday, held a closed-door peace talks with aggrieved members of the party in Kano State.

Osa Director, the national spokesperson of the NDC, disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday.

Mr Director explained that the closed-door peace talks were part of efforts to resolve the primary election-related crisis between Kwankwasiya Movement and other NDC members in the North-western state.

Kwankwasiya Movement is a political support group founded by the NDC vice-presidential candidate and former Governor of Kano State, Rabiu Kwankwaso.

The national spokesperson said the meeting, which lasted for several hours, was “productive.”

Senator Dickson and the NDC leadership are mediating in the process in order to enhance inclusion and participation by every party member.

According to Oda Director the NDC leadership will not impose candidates in Kano State, and indeed across the nation as the party cherishes the virtues of internal democracy,” he said.

He stressed that the NDC has not released any official results of its 2027 primaries in any state.

He urged members to disregard any such list in circulation.

The cause of the crisis

It was gathered that some NDC members in North-west Nigeria recently alleged Mr Kwankwaso was plotting to facilitate the dominance of members of Kwankwasiya Movement in the region’s party structure while dropping other key party leaders.

The Vice-Chairman of the NDC in the North-west, Mohammed Serina, and the Chairman of the party in Kano State, Hussaini Mariga, made the allegations against Mr Kwankwaso in a petition recently submitted to the party’s national leadership.

The petition followed purported results of NDC’s primaries in North-west circulating on Facebook in which the majority of winners were linked to the Kwankwasiya Movement.

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

The Independent Electoral Commission, INEC, has removed the names of Ahmed Yayari and Daniel Woyengikuro from its portal as Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, National Treasurer and National Financial Secretary, respectively.

According to a check by DAILY POST shows that both names have also been replaced with Odeyemi Mackson Oladiran and Eyim Donatus Henry as the new executives.

Yayari and Woyengikuro who are part of the Makinde-backed Turaki faction while Odeyemi and Eyim are members of the FCT Minister Nyesom Wike’s faction, which is also the recognised faction of the PDP.

INEC had earlier recognised Wike’s faction by putting the names of Abdulrahman Mohammed as the National Chairman and Samuel Anyanwu as the National Secretary, but had left the names of Yayari and Woyengikuro as part of the executives.

With the recent update on its portal, all executives of the PDP on INEC’s portal are now aligned with FCT Minister Nyesom Wike.

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

The engagement is one of the consultative meetings scheduled by the electoral umpire to review preparations for the Ekiti election.

The chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), along with national commissioners, is meeting with chairmen and secretaries of political parties, ahead of the forthcoming Ekiti governorship election

Tuesday’s engagement is one of the consultative meetings scheduled by the electoral umpire to review preparations for the Ekiti election.

It is holding exactly eleven days to the governorship election, which is scheduled for June 20th, 2026.

The meeting hopes to enable the political parties and the electoral umpire to put finishing touches on all the preparations for the Ekiti governorship election.

Amupitan Defends Appeal
In his opening remarks, the INEC chairman, Joash Amupitan, defended the commission’s decision to appeal the recent court judgment on the powers of the commission to set a timetable for elections, including that of setting timelines for pre-election activities for political parties, such as the conduct of primaries and the submission of the lists of candidates.

The chairman maintained that the decision, which upheld the powers of INEC to issue the election timetable on the one hand and, on the other hand, struck out the powers of INEC to set the timeline for political parties’ primaries, was inconsistent and therefore sought a clearer judicial pronouncement.

He said in Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/517/2026 — Youth Party v. INEC, delivered on 20 May 2026, the Federal High Court questioned certain timelines in the Commission’s timetable.

In a subsequent judgment in Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/720/2026 — Social Democratic Party (SDP) v. INEC, delivered on 26 May 2026, a separate court affirmed the Commission’s authority to issue an electoral timetable but nullified certain timelines relating to the nomination and substitution of candidates.

The INEC chief said the Commission had filed appeals against both decisions and taken the necessary legal steps to obtain authoritative pronouncements from the Appellate Courts.

According to him, the activities contained in the timetable were not isolated events but interrelated operational processes essential to the orderly conduct of elections.

Amupitan listed critical electoral activities for which the Electoral Act prescribed no express statutory timelines but which must nonetheless be accommodated within the overall electoral calendar.

These include the submission and verification of party membership registers, the monitoring of party primaries across the Federation, the pre-upload of primary results on the Commission’s portal, the printing of ballot papers and result sheets, quality assurance procedures, the configuration of BVAS machines, and compliance with statutory obligations such as inviting political parties to inspect election materials pursuant to Section 42 of the Electoral Act 2026.

“The Commission therefore considers it imperative that all electoral activities be harmonised within a coherent and workable framework that promotes certainty, transparency, administrative efficiency and equal treatment of all political parties,” he said, assuring the public that, notwithstanding the pending appeals, INEC remained firmly committed to conducting the 2027 elections in strict compliance with the Constitution and the Electoral Act.