There are indications that the Supreme Court judgment on the disputed Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) national secretary has opened a new frontier in the tussle for the control of party structure ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Daily Sun gathered that in the aftermath of the Supreme Court judgment on the national secretary position, supporters of the Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and those in the camp of the governors have returned to the trenches.
The PDP governors and loyalists of the minister have been at daggers drawn over the control of party machinery ahead of the party’s national convention later in the year.
The apex court in a judgment last Friday nullified the majority judgment of the Court of Appeal, Enugu Division, which upheld the verdict of the Enugu High Court which affirmed former national youth leader, Sunday Ude-Okoye, as PDP national secretary. However, the Supreme Court upheld the minority judgment of the appellate court, which stated the Enugu High Court has no jurisdiction over the issue.
The South East chapter of the PDP had in 2023 nominated Ude-Okoye as replacement for Senator Samuel Anyanwu, following his emergence as candidate in the last Imo state gubernatorial poll.
Ude-Okoye supported by the PDP governors, Board of Trustees (BoT) and the National Working Committee (NWC) recently took charge as the scribe of the opposition party. However, Anyanwu, who is Wike’s ally and believed to enjoy the support of the FCT minister, had taken its case to the Supreme Court. Nevertheless, the apex court has generated diverse interpretations by the disputants.
While Wike loyalists have been celebrating the judgment as a triumph for Anyanwu, the NWC, in a statement by the National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, said the verdict has reaffirmed the stance of the party organ that Ude-Okoye is national secretary.
According to a source close to the PDP Governors Forum, “the import of the Court judgment is that the case should not have gone to the court at all. So, the apex court nullified the majority judgment which upheld the judgment of the lower court and upheld the minority judgment, which said that the court has no jurisdiction over the issue.
“It, therefore, means, it falls on the party to decide who is national secretary. And the NWC and the BoT as well as the governors have already said it is Ude-Okoye.”
On the flipside, a source close to Anyanwu told Daily Sun that “those saying Ude-Okoye is national secretary, are joking. The Supreme Court judgment is clear. The issue is who was the national secretary at the time the suit at the Enugu High Court was initiated.”
Nonetheless, a source at the PDP national secretariat told our correspondent that arising from the Supreme Court judgment, some party chieftains are pushing for the National Working Committee ( NWC) to activate disciplinary actions against Anyanwu and anyone who may want to move against the position of the party that Ude-Okoye is the authentic national secretary.
Daily Sun that NWC, in the coming days, may move against Anyanwu, using the report of the Chief Tom Ikimi-led National Disciplinary Committee. The Ikimi panel had recently recommended that Anyanwu be expelled from the party for alleged anti -party activities.
A source told Daily Sun that “the Supreme Court has strengthened the hands of the party. What it means is that the party leadership is now empowered to take disciplinary action against any erring member. It also means that the NWC can actually expel Anyanwu.
“Remember that with the position of the Court that the national secretary is an internal affairs of the party, it means that if Anyanwu and his people do not fall in line, the party can actually sanction them. I can confirm that there are already pushes in that direction.”
Efforts to Ologunagba were unsuccessful at the time of filing this report.
Credit: The Sun