The embattled National Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, Samuel Anyanwu, has described the recognition of Sunday Udeh-Okoye as the occupant of the position by the party’s Board of Trustees as an invitation to chaos.
Mr Anyanwu, in a telephone interview on Wednesday in Abuja, said that BoT had no power to direct the party to recognise Mr Udeh-Okoye as the party’s national secretary.
The BoT, arising from an emergency meeting on Wednesday in Abuja, called on the PDP National Working Committee to recognise and immediately swear in Mr Udeh-Okoye as the party’s national secretary.
The BoT said that the position was in obedience to the judgment of the Court of Appeal.
The BoT Chairman, Adolphus Wabara, while reading the communiqué issued at the end of the meeting, said that the decision followed the recommendations by the Taminu Turaki-led committee constituted by the board to study the legal disputes between Mr Anyanwu and Mr Udeh-Okoye, who are both laying claim to the seat.
The PDP has been enmeshed in a leadership crisis, as Mr Anyanwu and Mr Udeh-Okey continued to lay claim to the office of the PDP national secretary.
Mr Wabara said that the BoT, in exercise of its constitutional powers, received, exhaustively considered and adopted the report of the Turaki-led committee regarding the declarative judgment of the High Court of Enugu, as upheld by the Court of Appeal on the matter.
“Consequently, the BoT by adopting the report, recognises Udeh-Okoye as the substantive national secretary of PDP,” he had said.
Mr Wabara said this was in full obedience to the declaratory judgment of the High Court of Enugu, as upheld by the Court of Appeal, as there had been no contrary or overriding judgment from any court of superior jurisdiction.
NAN also reports that a High Court and the Court of Appeal, both sitting in Enugu, had, on Dec. 20, 2024 and Jan. 14, removed Mr Anyanwu from office and recognised Mr Udeh-Okoye as the PDP national secretary.
Mr Anyanwu, however, later secured a stay of execution order from the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, in an appeal No. CA/E/24/2024 on the judgment earlier delivered by the Enugu division of the appellate court.
Recall that the PDP Governors’ Forum had, in a communiqué issued after its meeting held on January 30 in Asaba, called for implementation of court judgment recognising Mr Udeh-Okoye as the national secretary.
Reacting to the BoT advice, Mr Anyanwu said that the matter was already in court and the board had no power to offer such advice.
“You and I know that the matter is in the Appeal Court and we shouldn’t even talk about it. The BoT members there, the tenure of some of them has expired; they can’t direct or advise the executive to do anything because their tenure has expired since October 2024. Besides, the matter is at the Appeal Court and there is a stay of execution order. So they (BoT) will be inviting chaos by making such statements,” Mr Anyanwu said.
(NAN)
