1 week ago
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For the past few weeks, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been engulfed in a serious crisis over who is the rightful person tooccupy the position of the party National Secretary. The crisis has, however, divided stakeholders and leaders of the party.
Recall that the party has been enmeshed in a self-inflicted crisis before and after the 2023 general elections. However, the present crisis started when Sen. Samuel Anyanwudecided to contest the Imo State governorship election held in November, 2023.
When Anyanwuembarked on the election as the PDP candidate for the Imo State governorship election, the South-East zone of PDP nominated the former party National Youth Leader, Hon. Sunday Ude-Okoye, to replace him. Even though some party stakeholders were expecting him to have resigned while contesting the governorship election,Anyanwu never did.
The party Constitution didn’t expressly state that it’s compulsory for Anyanwu to resign his position as the National Secretary, but a school of thought and some stakeholders in the party were of the opinion that morally, the best thing to do was for Anyanwu to have stepped down and focused on his election.
The argument in some quarters was that if the party National Working Committee (NWC), of which Anyanwu is a member, could mandate members, who were also contesting elections from state level to resign, the leadership of the party should lead by example and resign when interested in contesting elections.
The failure of Anyanwuto resign his position and the decision of the South East to nominate a party member from the South East zone toreplace him sparked a chain of legal battle, which culminated into the sack of Anyanwuby the Court of Appeal sitting in Enugu, on December 20, 2024.
The Court of Appeal had upheld a High Court ruling that sacked Anyanwu as the National Secretary of PDP. The Court equally upheld Udeh-Okoye asthe substantive National Secretary of the party.
In a lead judgment delivered by Justice Ridwan Abdullahi, the Court described Anyanwu‘s claim to the PDP’s secretary position after he contested and emerged as PDP governorship candidate violated the party’s constitution and his appeal lacked merit.
After several days of the Appeal Court judgment, Anyanwueventually obtained a stay of execution, stating, “as a matter of fact, the ruling of the Appeal Court judgment has been appealed at the Supreme Court, and there is a stay of execution. So, the position remains the way it is until determined by the Supreme Court.”
The PDP governors, the Board of Trustees (BoT), some members of the party NWC and majority stakeholders from South East PDP have, however, discarded the appeal and stay of execution by Anyanwu and insisted that Udeh-Okoye is the substantive National Secretary of the party. They all relied on the Appeal Court judgment.
The PDP governors in their communique after their meeting in Asaba, Delta State on January 31 had thrown their weight behind Udeh-Okoye, calling on the NWC to implement the Appeal Court judgment.
According to the communique, thegovernors “noted with delight the ongoing efforts at resolving the crisis in the National Working Committee, NWC, on the position of the National Secretary, and has reaffirmed its support for the Court of Appeal judgment; consequently, the Forum advised the NWC to set up the machinery for the effective implementation of the court judgment.”
Aside from the governors, other organs of the party joined the call for Udeh-Okoye tobe recognized immediately as the PDP National Secretary.
The BoT, in their communique after their meeting on February 5, 2025, adopted the report of its committee led by Barr. Kabiru Tanimu Turaki SAN on the issue of the National Secretary of the PDP especially with regard to the declarative judgment of the High Court of Enugu asupheld by the Court of Appeal.
“Consequently, the BoTby adopting the report recognises Hon. Sunday Udeh-Okoye as the substantive National Secretary of the PDP in full obedience to the declaratory Judgment of the High Court of Enugu as also upheld by the Court of Appeal there being no contrary or overriding judgment from any Court of superior jurisdiction.
“The BoT charges the National Working Committee (NWC) torecognise and immediately swear in Hon. Sunday Udeh-Okoye as the National Secretary of the PDP in obedience to the Judgment of the Court of Appeal.
“The BoT urges all party organs, critical stakeholders, leaders and members across the country as well as all democracy development partners and institutions to be guided by the judgment of the Court of Appeal with regard to the position of the National Secretary of the PDP,” the BoT said.
The National Legal Adviser of PDP, Kamaldeen Ajibade SAN, who also lent his voice to the ongoing crisis, asked the NWC, of which he is a part, toimmediately swear in Udeh-Okoye, as the National Secretary.
Ajibade, in an internal memo received by the office of the Acting National Chairman, Umar Damagum, on Monday, affirmed his full adoption of the Board of Trustees panel’s report.
In the memo, Ajibade stated that since both Udeh-Okoye and Senator Anyanwu had submitted themselves tothe BoT panel chaired by Turaki, they should demonstrate the honour of accepting the panel’s findings.
Ajibade’s memo reads in part: “The contending parties have voluntarily submitted tothe authority of the Dr. Kabiru T. Turaki, SAN led committee and a legal opinion/advice having been proffered after evaluation of documents tendered by parties, calling for review of the said legal opinion/advice in my opinion is not only improper but will undermine the effort of the BoT and increase the already existing tension as well asworsen the volatility within the party which may be difficult toarrest.
“It is, therefore, my advice that the contending parties have willingly submitted themselves to the authority of the committee led by Dr. Kabiru T. Turaki, SAN should be honourable enough to abide by the outcome of the legal opinion/advice stemming from the proceeding they unreservedly consented to, most especially that the said legal opinion/advice was signed by a well experienced Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and same adopted by the BoTwhich is the conscience of the party. See Article 32(5) (a) to (i) of the Constitution (amended in 2017) of our great party.
“Finally, I have nothing to add to the said legal opinion, it is hereby adopted as mine.”
On its part, the South East zone of PDP, rose from a meeting at Enugu on January 25, 2025, with a resolution, restating its support for Hon. Udeh-Okoye asthe National Secretary of the party.
The zone, in its communique, after its meeting in Enugu read by the National Vice Chairman (South East) of the PDP, Chief Ali Odefa, “deliberated on the unfortunate, but contrived controversies surrounding the office of the National Secretary of the PDP zoned to the South East region.”
The zone “commends the Court of Appeal judgement upholding Hon. S.K.E Udeh-Okoye as the National Secretary of the party in line with the constitution of our party and the position of the South East ZEC of our party. We also remain consistent and united in this position that Hon. Udeh-Okoye remains the National Secretary of our party.”
While almost all the organs of the party are behind Udeh-Okoye asthe PDP National Secretary, Anyanwuinsisted that any person interested in the position must wait till December when the NWC tenure will expired.
However, the days ahead will be interesting. Will Anyanwu relinquish his position for Udeh-Okoye? Nigerians, especially PDP members are waiting for the outcome of the controversy surrounding the position of PDP National Secretary.
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