•Urges Support To Rebuild Party • Ude Okoye Remains Secretary, Says Ologunagba
The Supreme Court on Friday set aside the December 22, 2024, majority judgment of the Court of Appeal in Enugu sacking Senator Samuel Anyanwu as the National Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Following the judgment, Anyanwu resumed duty at the Wadata Plaza, Abuja, national secretariat of the party on Friday. He expressed appreciation to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, for supporting him during his travails.
Anyanwu also called on all leaders of the PDP to abandon the oath of hostilities and support him in rebuilding the PDP as secretary. A five-member panel of the Supreme Court, presided over by Justice Uwani Abba-Aji, unanimously ruled that both the High Court of Enugu State and Court of Appeal in Enugu lacked the jurisdiction to have heard the suit.
Justice Jamilu Tukur, in the lead judgment, held that the issues in the suit filed by Emmanuel Aniagwu at the High Court of Enugu State bordered on matters relating to the internal affairs of the PDP, which are not justiciable and over which no courts have jurisdiction.
Justice Tukur also held that Anyanwu’s participation in the last governorship election in Imo State as the candidate of the PDP was pursuant to the approval of the party’s leadership as against the claim by Aniagwu.
He equally found that Aniagwu lacked the locus standi to have instituted the suit having not shown the injury he suffered and how Anyanwu’s conduct affected him personally, describing him as a busy body and an interloper.
Justice Tukur noted that S. K. E. Ude-Okoye, who would have been the beneficiary of the case, was not made a party. He affirmed the minority judgment of the Enugu division of the Court of Appeal delivered by Justice Ekanem, who held that the court was without the requisite jurisdiction to hear the case.
The appellate court had in a judgment it delivered last December upheld the High Court verdict that sacked Anyanwu and recognised Udeh-Okoye as the authentic national scribe of the party.
In its lead judgment that was delivered by Justice Ridwan Abdullahi, the appellate court dismissed, as incompetent and lacking in merit, Anyanwu’s bid to overturn the decision of the High Court.
The court held that Anyanwu’s continued stay in office as National Secretary was in breach of PDP’s Constitution, having contested and emerged as the party’s candidate in the governorship election that was held in Imo State last year.
However, dissatisfied with the concurrent judgments of the two courts, Anyanwu approached the Supreme Court to set them aside. Aside from his substantive appeal, he equally filed a motion for accelerated hearing and for the abridgment of time within which the matter would be determined, citing the crucial role of the office of National Secretary in the affairs of the political party.
Both the Board of Trustees (BOT) and the National Working Committee (NWC) of the PDP had earlier endorsed Ude-Okoye as the National Secretary of the party, in line with the subsisting court judgments.
Anyanwu had rejected the decisions outright, insisting that the position was the subject of a pending litigation. Meanwhile, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, in a statement on Friday, argued that the Supreme Court judgment was a validation of Ude-Okoye as party’s secretary.
He said: “Today’s judgment of the Supreme Court reaffirms the standing position of the party and emphatically settles the emergence of SKE Udeh Okoye as the substantive National Secretary of the PDP having been duly nominated, endorsed and ratified through the internal mechanism of the PDP statutory organs and bodies in line with provisions of the PDP Constitution (as amended in 2017).”
He added: “the NWC at its 576th meeting held on the 11th of October, 2023, directed the South East Zonal Executive Committee to nominate a replacement for Senator Samuel Anyanwu upon Senator Anyanwu’s nomination as the governorship candidate of the PDP to contest the November 2023 Governorship election in Imo State.
“Consequent upon the directive of the NWC, the South East Zonal Executive Committee at its meeting held on October 20, 2023, passed a resolution approving the emergence and forwarding of the name of SKE Udeh Okoye to the NWC as the National Secretary of the party.
“Accordingly, the NWC at its 577th meeting held on November 7, 2023, pursuant to its powers under the PDP Constitution, duly received, deliberated upon, accepted and approved the emergence of SKE Udeh Okoye as the National Secretary of the party, which appointment has also since been endorsed by relevant organs and bodies of the PDP including the Board of Trustees (BoT), South East Zonal Caucus, the PDP Governors’ Forum and officially communicated to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the general public.”
