The Peoples Democratic Party will wait for the decision of the Court to decide the fate of its suspended National Secretary, Sam Anyanwu.
Anyanwu was the party’s candidate in the November 11 Imo State governorship election that lost to the incumbent governor, Hope Uzodimma.
Saturday PUNCH reported that arising from its Southeast Zonal Executive Committee meeting, in November, the party’s National Vice-Chairman, Ali Odefa, declared that the zone has unanimously nominated the former party National Youth Leader, Sunday Udeh Okoye, as the new National Secretary.
Consequently, a high Court in Enugu State ordered the Acting National Chairman of the PDP, Umar Damagum to recognize Sunday Ude-Okoye as the National Secretary of the party.
Citing a contradictory Court order, the NWC of the PDP asked Anyanwu to step aside and directed a party chieftain, Mr Setonji Koshoedo to take over as acting National Secretary.
Until his appointment, Koshoedo was the Deputy National Secretary.
The PUNCH also reported that a few days after, a Federal Capital Territory High Court ordered Anyanwu to stop parading himself as the National Secretary of the PDP pending the determination of a suit against him.
Consequently, on December 6th, PDP NWC directed all party members to withdraw pending intra-party lawsuits.
Despite the party’s order, the PDP National Legal Adviser, Kamaldeen Ajibade, confirmed to Saturday PUNCH that the matter was still pending before the court.
In an interview with our correspondent on Friday, Ajibade said, “ The parties involved refused to withdraw the matter in Court. So the matter is still before the Court.”
He hinted the party cannot intervene or the matter is withdrawn from Court.
Speaking on the grounds of anonymity, another high-ranking member of the PDP NWC said irrespective of the court’s decision, the party would appeal it.
When contacted, Anyanwu, who said his concern was the constitution, assured that his ready to abide by any decision taken by the party leadership.
He stated, “I am fine. I don’t have any problem with it as far as the constitution is respected and obeyed. I can’t be a judge in my case. I will wait and obey any decision taken by the party.”
Efforts to get the PDP National Vice Chairman (South-East), Ali Odefa, to speak on the matter did not yield the desired results, as he did not answer our correspondent’s calls nor did he reply to messages sent to his mobile as of the time of filing this report.
