By Emmanuel Oloniruha
INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, on Friday met with leaders of the two warring factions of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), ahead of the forthcoming Federal Capital Territory (FCT) area council elections as well as the Osun and Ekiti state governorship elections.
Amupitan, while addressing the party leaders at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja, said that the meeting had become necessary, following several correspondences received by the commission from various sides requesting for one thing or the other.
Amupitan said that INEC, as independent commission with statutory mandate to monitor the activities of political parties and to conduct elections, deemed it necessary to invite the warring groups within the party for the meeting.
“The FCT election is coming up on Feb. 24, 2026, while the Ekiti election will be coming up in June 2026 and of Osun in July 2026.
“As a build-up to these elections, we have issued our own schedule of activities to all the political parties, and we are on course to ensure that we have a very smooth election at the Area Council of FCT and at Eki and Osun states.
“We have decided to invite all the parties, especially the fact that we have received conflicting correspondences from the Peoples Democratic Party.
“We felt that these rubbing minds together will be a good opportunity for us to forge the way forward concerning the elections.
“I’m happy that this morning, we have very top officials that are present here. So that we can discuss as a family and see how the issues can be resolved and we move forward.
“We are guided by the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Electoral Act and the regulations that have been made by INEC,” he said.
Amupitan said that the commission was mindful of the need for us to maintain the sanctity of the constitution as well as the Electoral Act and the guidelines.
“Actually INEC sits on the tripod, three-legged regimes; the Constitution, the Electoral Act and the regulations that have been made.
“So we are determined to ensure that we follow the provisions of the various laws, constitution and the regulations that we have made,” he said.
The INEC chairman called for frank discussions to achieve the objectives of the meeting.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the meeting later went into a closed door section.
At the ongoing meeting are the National Chairman, Tanimu Turaki and members of his National Working Committee (NWC), Board of Trustees (BoT) Chairman Sen. Adolphus Wabara and a former Governor of Niger, Dr Babangida Aliyu, among others.
Also at the meeting are the factional acting National Chairman, PDP National Caretaker Committee, Abdulrahaman Mohammed and members of his own NWC, the factional National Secretary, Sen. Samuel Anyanwu, Captain Umar Bature and others.
(NAN)
