Samuel Anyanwu, the beleaguered national secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), asserts that he is the legitimate occupant of the position.
Anyanwu made this claim during an appearance on Dickson Iroegbu’s current affairs program, “Nigeria Right Now.”
Remembers that Sunday Ude-Okoye, a party chieftain, and Anyanwu are both vying for the post of national secretary, causing the PDP to be embroiled in a new crisis.
In December, the Court of Appeal decided that Ude-Okoye ought to take Anyanwu’s place as the national secretary of the PDP.
When Anyanwu was elected as the PDP’s candidate for governor of Imo in 2023, the party’s south-east zonal executive committee recommended Udeh-Okoye to succeed him.
According to reports, Anyanwu was able to secure many court orders that prevented him from being removed from office.
However, the high court’s ruling that barred Anyanwu’s dismissal was overturned by Appeal Court judge Ridwan Abdullahi on December 20, 2024, on the grounds that it lacked substance.
Ude-Okoye has been portraying himself as the party’s national secretary since the ruling.
However, Anyanwu stated that on the same day that the appellate court handed down the decision in favor of Ude-Okoye, he appealed the decision and also petitioned the Supreme Court for a stay of execution.
“As we speak today, I’m still the national secretary of PDP. The reason is that on the 20th of December, there was a court judgment from the appeal court of Enugu affirming the judgment of the state high court of Enugu.
“Before then, I had a federal high court judgment which affirmed my position. If you remember, sometime in 2023 before the election, precisely on the 10th of November 2023, there was a state high court judgment which said I should have resigned before vying for the office of the governor.
“Then I went to the federal high court here in Abuja, which confirmed my position that as long as I was elected by convention, my position is sacrosanct until the 9th of December 2025, when my position will officially end,” he said.
