The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declined to recognise the newly-constituted Kogi State executive of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), reportedly backed by Hon. Leke Abejide, member representing Yagba Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives.

The faction had emerged from a stakeholders’ meeting held in Lokoja on November 22, where Mr Sunday Maiyaki was selected to replace Kingsley Temitope Ogah as state chairman, while Mamman Akpena was named secretary. The list of the expanded executive council was subsequently forwarded to INEC’s Lokoja office.

However, INEC, in a letter dated November 25 and signed by the Acting Administrative Secretary in Kogi, Dahiru Halmisu Usman, rejected the communication, insisting that all correspondence on party leadership must originate from the ADC national secretariat and be addressed to the Commission’s headquarters in Abuja.

The letter stated that the Commission deals only with communications duly transmitted through the national leadership of political parties and does not engage with internal factions.

Part of the letter reads:

“The letter, as a matter of standard procedure guiding our operations, ought to have emanated from your National Party Secretariat to INEC headquarters, Abuja. We are obliged to honour only communications that follow this procedure and are so conveyed to us through our headquarters for appropriate action(s).”

Political observers say the development affirms the Kingsley Temitope Ogah-led state executive as the only leadership recognised by the ADC national body and INEC.