When INEC’s Silence is Not Golden

 The Independent National Electoral Commission’s curious silence on the Supreme Court’s judgments on the leadership crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party and the Labour Party is perceived in several quarters as an abdication of its responsibility as the impartial regulator of the political parties, fuelling allegations that the commission is aiding the destabilisation of the two major opposition parties, Davidson  Iriekpen writes

With the 2027 general election still two years away, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is already under scrutiny amid allegations that it is colluding with the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to give the party an undue advantage by aiding the ongoing attempts by the aggrieved leaders of the opposition parties to destabilise the parties.

Since the 2023 general election, both the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP) have been enmeshed in prolonged internal crises that are threatening to tear them apart.

Following the legal battle between Sunday Ude-Okoye and the embattled National Secretary of the PDP, Senator Samuel Anyanwu, the Supreme Court recently affirmed the supremacy of political parties over their internal affairs.

Consequent upon this, the National Working Committee (NWC) in a letter with reference number: PDP/DOM/GF.2/ VOL. IF/25-061, dated May 05, 2025 and signed by the Acting National Chairman, Iliya Damagum and the acting National Secretary, Setonji Koshoedo, conveyed to INEC the resolution taken at its 600th meeting.

In the said meeting, the NWC had directed the Deputy National Secretary to act as National Secretary in line with the provision of Section 36 (2) of the PDP Constitution (as amended in 2017). 

It was based on this that Damagum and Koshoedo signed the nomination form for the PDP candidate in the Anambra State governorship election with a letter with reference number: PDP/DOM/GF.2/VOL.1J/25-065 and dated May 07, 2025.

But Anyanwu denied it, insisting that he signed the nomination form when INEC rejected the earlier nomination form signed by Damagum and Koshoedo.

However, there was no letter or any documented evidence presented by any of the two camps showing that INEC rejected the form signed by Damagum and Koshoedo.

 Anyanwu, who presented a copy of the nomination form he signed with Damagum to prove his claims, insisted that a governor and a member of the Bukola Saraki-led reconciliation committee called and pleaded with him to sign the nomination form, which he did. 

Unfortunately, after accepting either the form signed by Damagum and Koshoedo or the one signed by Damagum and Anyanwu, INEC has refused to publicly make its position known on the duly recognised national secretary of the PDP.

The question, therefore, is: If political parties should be allowed to manage their affairs as declared by the Supreme Court. If the PDP had appointed Kodesho as its acting national secretary, why would INEC reject the nomination form he signed, as claimed by Anyanwu?

 It is for these reasons that many members of the party are accusing the electoral umpire of complicity in the crisis rocking the party.

The same allegations are trailing the commission’s silence on the crisis bedevilling the LP after the Supreme Court judgment.

Incidentally, it was INEC that started the crisis. Upon the expiration of Julius Abure’s tenure as national chairman of the party, he organised a national convention in Nnewi, Anambra State, without the commission’s presence, insisting that it had complied with the law by notifying the electoral umpire.

But INEC declined to monitor or recognise the said convention because, according to it, it was not conducted in line with the party’s constitution.

Subsequently, Abure instituted an action against the commission, seeking judicial affirmation of his chairmanship at the Federal High Court in Abuja, which later recognised his leadership of the party.

On the other hand, Governor Alex Otti of Abia State, the presidential candidate of the party in the 2023 general election, Mr. Peter Obi; his running mate, Datti Baba-Ahmed and other members of the National Executive Committee (NEC) convened a meeting in Umuahia on September 4, 2024, where they sacked the entire Abure-led NWC.

 They also appointed Nenadi Usman, a former Minister of Finance and ex-senator representing Kaduna South, to lead a 29-member caretaker committee and facilitate the election of a new party leadership within 90 days.

Upon an appeal on January 17, 2025, the Court of Appeal ruled that its earlier decision in November 2024, recognising Abure as the party’s chairman, remained valid and had not been overturned by any court. 

Usman vehemently faulted the decision and challenged it at the Supreme Court. While the appeal was pending at the apex court, Abure filed a cross-appeal.

In its judgment, the Supreme Court set aside the judgment of the Court of Appeal and dismissed Abure’s cross-appeal seeking affirmation as national chairman. It held that the court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the case, being an issue of internal affairs of the party.

The apex court resolved three issues submitted for determination in favour of the appellant, and held that both the trial court and the Appeal Court had no jurisdiction to entertain the suit of this first respondent. It consequently held that the appeal filed by Usman was meritorious.

 Since the Supreme Court delivered the judgment, INEC has refused to take an official position, fuelling speculations that the commission is aiding the destabilisation of the party for the benefit of the ruling APC.

So bad is the situation that LP candidates for the local government elections in Lagos have been thrown into confusion over which of the three factions of the party in the state is authentic.

While reacting to enquiries on why it has not taken a position on leadership crisis in the LP despite being in possession of the certified true copy of the Supreme Court judgment, the Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi, in a statement noted that the commission was carefully studying the verdict and would communicate its decision to the public in due course.

The questions bothering many observers now are: How long would it take INEC to study Supreme Court judgment and make its position known to the public?

Was the commission’s recent recognition of George Moghalu as the party’s governorship candidate for the Anambra State election slated for November 8, 2025 a validation of Abure’s leadership by the commission?

In the party’s primary conducted by Abure’s faction on April 5 at Finotel Hotel, Awka, Moghalu, had defeated John Nwosu, by polling 573 votes, out of 601 accredited votes.

But in a parallel primary election conducted by the Obi and Otti-backed faction of the LP, a sitting member of the Anambra State House of Assembly representing Onitsha South Two, Jude Umenajiego, polled 180 votes, to defeat John Nwosu, who polled 69 votes.

However, in a dramatic twist, INEC recently recognised Moghalu as the authentic candidate.

The protracted crises in the two major political parties are evidence of the failure of the commission to guide, advise and regulate the parties.

INEC ‘s perceived failure to be firm is being viewed as a deliberate effort to weaken opposition parties.