PDP Crisis: Judge gives Anyanwu seven days to present Supreme Court’s verdict
On Tuesday, the Federal High Court in Abuja ordered Senator Samuel Anyanwu seven days to appeal the Supreme Court’s decision, which he said restored him as the Peoples Democratic Party’s National Secretary.
Justice Inyang Ekwo issued the directive after Anyanwu’s lead counsel, Chief Ken Njamanze, SAN, called his notice to the Supreme Court’s ruling, which he claimed successfully resolved the legal argument over the post of the PDP’s national scribe.
Chief Njamanze, SAN, took the position on a day the high court heard and fixed for judgement, an action his client brought to stop the execution of concurrent judgements that fired him from the office and recognised Rt. Hon. Udeh-Okoye Ememchukwu as the bona fide National Secretary of the party.
It should be noted that in a decision issued last December, the Court of Appeal in Enugu affirmed a High Court decision that terminated Senator Anyanwu and recognised Rt. Hon. Udeh-Okoye as the party’s national scribe.
The court ruled that Anyanwu’s continuing tenure as National Secretary violated the PDP’s Constitution, as he competed and won the party’s governorship race in Imo State the previous year.
The PDP’s Board of Trustees, BOT, and National Working Committee, NWC, both approved Chief Udeh-Okoye based on the rulings.
However, displeased with the verdicts, Anyanwu filed an appeal with the Supreme Court, while also approaching the high court with a motion to halt the implementation of the judgements against him.
While deciding the case last Friday, the Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision by a five-member panel of Justices, overturned the lower courts’ decisions for lack of jurisdiction.
The Supreme Court ruled that the issue the courts addressed involved domestic concerns of a political party, which no court has the statutory authority to intervene in.
The Supreme Court decision prompted varying reactions from both Anyanwu and Rt. Hon. Udeh-Okoye’s sides, who claimed victory.
Meanwhile, in an affidavit filed in response to Senator Anyanwu’s case, Rt. Hon. Udeh-Okoye, the 4th defendant, told the court that, while the plaintiff was elected at the party’s National Convention on October 30, 2021, for a four-year term, he lost the position after being nominated as the party’s candidate for the Imo State governorship election in 2023.
He told the court that, while Article 47(5) of the PDP Constitution requires any officer elected to the party’s Executive Committee at any level to resign before running for any elective office, Article 47(6) allows for the appointment of someone from the same area or zone to serve out the officer’s tenure.
The fourth defendant informed the court that after Senator Anyanwu refused to resign the office, the PDP’s Board of Trustees, in a letter dated October 12, 2023, called the notice of the party’s National Chairman, Ambassador Umar Damagun, to the constitutional breach.
He stated that the party’s South East Zone Executives nominated him to serve the remainder of Senator Anyanwu’s remaining term in office at a meeting held in Enugu on October 16, 2022.
Rt. Hon. Udeh-Okoye also told the court that the litigation that resulted in the Enugu courts’ concurrent rulings was a result of the meeting at which he was nominated.
He consequently sought the dismissal of the complaint.
After both parties accepted their processes on Tuesday, Justice Ekwo delayed the case until April 28 for judgement.