Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State says members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the South-east may reconsider their membership if the party fails to recognise Sunday Udeh-Okoye as the party’s national secretary.
Mr Mbah disclosed this on Sunday while interacting with reporters after a closed-door meeting with some South-east PDP leaders at the Government House, Enugu.
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Some of the party leaders who attended the meeting were Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, Chairperson of PDP Board of Trustees (BOT), Adolphus Wabara, and the Chairperson of the party in the South-east Zone, Ali Odefa.
Others were Okwesilieze Nwodo, a former PDP National Chairperson and BOT member, Sam Egwu, a former governor of Ebonyi State, and Josephine Anenih, a former Minister of Women’s Affairs.
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A former Anambra Central Senator, Ben Obi, and Mr Udeh-Okoye also attended the meeting.
‘We may leave PDP if Udeh-Okoye isn’t recognised’
PREMIUM TIMES reports that Samuel Anyanwu and Mr Ude-Okoye have been engaged in an intense contest about who is the authentic national secretary of the PDP.
The South-east Zonal Executive Committee of the PDP, on 14 May, re-nominated Mr Udeh-Okoye as the party’s national secretary before presenting the re-nomination to the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) days later.
The PDP leaders in the zone had threatened to dump the party if its NWC refuses to ratify Mr Ude-Okoye as the national secretary.
However, the acting National Chairperson of the PDP, Umar Damagun, announced last Wednesday that Mr Anyanwu had been restored to his position as the party’s national secretary which was later opposed by a faction of the party’s NWC.
Speaking after the closed-door meeting in Enugu State, Mr Mbah said he supports the position of the PDP’s factional NWC, BOT, and South-east Zonal Executive Committee (ZEC) on the crisis rocking the party.
The Enugu governor described as “sacrosanct” the earlier resolve of the South-east to review its future with the party if it fails to respect the zone’s stance on the national secretary position.
He expressed support for the proposed PDP’s National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting scheduled for 30 June.
Mr Mbah dismissed his rumoured plans to defect to another party, explaining that he was still a member of the PDP, but was “simply fed up with the shenanigans that have more or less made the party an endless circus.”
“For the record, just as I stated during my interactive session with fellows and members of the Nigerian Guild of Editors in Enugu at the weekend, while I am still a member of the PDP, the South-east – and that includes me – reserves the right to review our continued membership of the party if the party is unwilling to put its house in order.
“That was invariably the position adopted during our last South-east Zonal meeting held here in Enugu. During that meeting, the caucus noted that the party should not disregard the zone’s stand regarding the national secretary position,” he said.
Continuing, the governor said: “To all intents and purposes, this has obviously not been the case. So, there is no doubt as to where I stand on the matter.
“The position of the South-east with respect to the national secretaryship of the party as issued in that communique is sacrosanct.”
Background
There has been an intense contest about who is the authentic national secretary of the PDP, between Messrs Anyanwu and Udeh-Okoye.
The contest, which has torn the party apart, had been adjudicated on by various courts, including Nigeria’s Supreme Court.
Mr Anyanwu, the substantive occupant of the position, had 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 APC.
He did not, however, submit a resignation letter as the party’s national secretary.
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 High Court in Enugu State ordered the PDP to replace Mr Anyanwu as the party’s national secretary with Mr Ude-Okoye in October 2023. 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.” It 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, also restrained the PDP national leadership 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 governorship election in Imo State violated the party’s constitution, and 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 2024 on the strength of the judgement.
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 believed that the “status quo” meant he should continue to function as the PDP national secretary as pronounced by the Court of Appeal.
Mr Anyanwu, on his part, argued that the court’s status quo order amounted to a stay of execution of the court of appeal judgment affirming Mr Ude-Okoye as national secretary.
However, on 21 March 2025, 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 of 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 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.
Before Mr Damagum announced Mr Anyanwu’s restoration as the PDP’s national secretary, a bloc of leaders from the party loyal to the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, had earlier reaffirmed Mr Anyanwu as the duly elected and substantive national secretary of the party.
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