The leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the South-east zone has again renominated Sunday Udeh-Okoye as the party’s national secretary.
The PDP leaders in the South-east announced this in a communique issued at the end of their meeting in Enugu on Wednesday.
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The communique, obtained by PREMIUM TIMES, was signed by the PDP National Vice Chairperson, Ali Odefa.
There has been an intense contest between Samuel Anyanwu and a former PDP national youth leader, Mr Ude-Okoye, about who the authentic national secretary of the PDP is.
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The matter is being argued at various courts, including Nigeria’s Supreme Court.
Re-nomination
On 21 March this year, the Supreme Court overturned the decisions of the Court of Appeal and the Federal High Court, sacking Mr Anyanwu as the PDP national secretary.
The court held that matters relating to the leadership or membership of a political party fall strictly within the party’s internal affairs and should not be the court’s business.
At the meeting on Wednesday, the gathering said the PDP Governors’ Forum had set up a panel to review the court judgement.
At its 14 April meeting in Ibadan, Oyo State, they said the forum recommended that the South-east PDP nominate a candidate who would serve out the remaining tenure of the party’s national secretary, zoned to the region.
The South-east PDP leaders said the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) adopted the forum’s recommendation, directing the region’s Zonal Executive Committee (ZEC) to nominate a candidate for the national secretary position.
According to the communique, the PDP’s NWC adopted the recommendations on 29 April during its 600th meeting held at the party’s National Headquarters, Wadata Plaza, Abuja.
“The South-east ZEC exhaustively deliberated on the directive of the NWC and came to the conclusion that it offered a sure pathway to peace, unity, stability, and progress of our party.
“Consequently, the ZEC unanimously recommended Hon. Sunday Udeh-Okoye as the candidate to complete the term of office of the national secretary,” the communique reads in part.
“We also urge the NWC to uphold its decision at its 600th meeting on April 29, 2025, by ensuring that the deputy national secretary of the PDP functions as the acting national secretary pending the ratification of the nominee for the Office of the National Secretary by NEC in line with the recommendations of the PDP Governors’ Forum as adopted by the NWC,” it added.
‘Accept Udeh-Okoye or we’ll reconsider our membership’
The South-east PDP leaders noted that the region has served as a stronghold of the party from its inception in 1999.
“In its near three-decade existence, we have given our loyalty and all to the party,” the leaders said.
They claimed that while the PDP has been losing key members since the 2023 general election, the South-east has continued to strengthen the party by getting major opposition figures back into the PDP fold.
The South-east PDP leaders cited the return of the 2023 Labour Party governorship candidate in Enugu State to the PDP and some federal and state lawmakers as examples of their efforts to strengthen the party in the region.
They appealed to the national leadership of the PDP to immediately ratify the latest re-nomination of Mr Ude-Okoye as the party’s national secretary, arguing that the ratification would bring the needless lingering dispute over the matter to a close.
“However, in the event that our position is not promptly implemented by the party, the South-east PDP, as a family, will be compelled to reconsider our relationship with the PDP going forward,” they said.
Background
Mr Anyanwu, the substantive occupant of the position, stepped aside to contest in the 11 November 2023 Imo State governorship election on the PDP platform but lost to the incumbent governor, Hope Uzodinma of the All Progressives Congress.
He did not, however, submit a letter of resignation from the national secretary position of the party.
Meanwhile, in October 2023, some weeks before the Imo election, the leadership of the PDP in the South-east nominated Mr Ude-Okoye to replace Mr Anyanwu as the party’s national secretary.
PREMIUM TIMES reports that the position of the national secretary was zoned to the South-east by the PDP in 2021 ahead of the party’s national convention on 30 October of that year.
In the heat of the debate, a State High Court in Enugu, in October 2023, ordered the PDP to replace Mr Anyanwu as the party’s national secretary with Mr Ude-Okoye. The former PDP national youth leader filed the suit.
The PDP’s NWC had countered the order in a motion filed on 24 October 2023.
In the motion, the NWC asked the court to set aside the order, arguing that “it was obtained by fraud and suppression of material facts” and also faulted the order for not being specific about what position Mr Udeh-Okoye should fill.
In another twist, earlier in January 2024, a Federal High Court in Abuja declared Mr Anyanwu as the valid national secretary of the PDP.
The judge, Inyang Ekwo, restrained the national leadership of the PDP from appointing any person as its acting national secretary until the expiration of Mr Anyanwu’s four-year tenure on 9 December 2025, as enshrined in the party’s constitution.
In December, the Court of Appeal, Enugu Division, upheld the High Court’s ruling that Mr Ude-Okoye be recognised as the national secretary of the PDP against Mr Anyanwu.
In the lead judgement by Ridwan Abdullahi, the appellate court said Mr Anyanwu’s claim to the position after he contested and emerged as the PDP candidate in the Imo governorship election violated the party’s constitution, and that his appeal had no merit.
Despite the judgement, Mr Anyanwu refused to vacate office and appealed the ruling at the Supreme Court.
Mr Ude-Okoye, on his part, assumed duty on 30 December on the strength of the judgement.
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However, the Court of Appeal in Abuja, in January 2025, ordered both parties to maintain the status quo until the Supreme Court resolves the appeal.
Messrs Udeh-Okoye and Anyanwu interpreted the court order differently.
Mr Ude-Okoye believes that the status quo means that he should continue to function as the PDP national secretary, as the Court of Appeal pronounced. At the same time, Mr Anyanwu argued that the court order amounted to a stay of execution of the Court of Appeal judgement affirming Mr Ude-Okoye as national secretary.
However, on 21 March, the Supreme Court nullified the judgements of the lower courts, which sacked Mr Anyanwu as the PDP national secretary.
While Mr Anyanwu celebrated the court overturning his sack, the PDP leadership in the South-east expressed happiness that the court held that both courts had no jurisdiction to hear the case in the first instance.
The South-east PDP celebrated the ruling of the court, which held that matters relating to the leadership or membership of a political party fall strictly within the party’s internal affairs and should not be the business of any court.
