The People's Democratic Party has arranged its National Caucus meeting for Wednesday, April 17, and its Board of Trustees and National Executive Committee meetings for Thursday, April 18.
NEC is the highest body of the party, consisting of all party state governors, President, former presidents, current and former principal officers of the National Assembly, all state chairmen, members of the NWC, former governors, current and former senators, current and former house of representatives members, and former NWC members among others.
As outlined in the PDP 2017 constitution as amended, Section 4, Part VIII states “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.”
The last PDP NEC meeting, the 97th was convened by the suspended National Chairman, Senator Iyorchia Ayu, on September 22, 2022.
As a result, 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 failure to convene the 98th NEC meeting.
Sowunmi, represented by a legal team of 13 lawyers led by Anderson Asemota, filed a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/70/2024 seeking to remove Damagum from his position for purportedly neglecting his duties.
In a suit still pending before the court, he is requesting the court to prohibit the defendants from continuing to perform their duties until the meeting is convened.
Remember that the PDP Governors Forum, led by Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed, urged 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.
The PDP in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, on Friday, urged all members to take note of the scheduled date.
The statement read in part “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 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.
“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.
