Why Anyanwu Must Go, By PDP Stakeholders

Facts emerged at the weekend on why governors elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT) are insisting on the exit of Senator Samuel Anyanwu as the party’s National Secretary.

Highly placed party sources who spoke with this reporter, said the position taken by the governors and the BoT was meant to preserve the rule of law in the running of the party’s affairs.

The party leaders, who have maintained neutrality in the festering leadership crisis, spoke on condition of anonymity because they did not want to be drawn into the fray.

According to them, the PDP would be setting the wrong precedent by allowing Anyanwu to retain his seat, stressing that it could erode the confidence of members in the ability of the party to act decisively in crisis situations.

They buttressed their position with similar cases involving three past members of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC); two former National Chairmen and a former National Secretary.

The party chieftains recalled how, in March 2023, the PDP leadership at the time, swiftly implemented a Benue State high court ruling that sacked Dr Iyorchia Ayu as national chairman.

Dr Ayu was first suspended by his local PDP Igyorov Ward in Gboko local government area in March that year. Those that suspended him followed it up with a court process that eventually led to his removal as national chairman by a high court in his state.

Ayu was replaced with then Deputy National Chairman (North), Amb Umar Damagum almost immediately. Even though he fought through the courts to regain his position, the party did not allow him to retain his seat while the legal battle lasted.

Another former national chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, was similarly suspended by his local Ward in Rivers State in August 2021, “for failing to pay his annual dues to the party.”

Like Ayu, Secondus, also, was eventually removed as chairman on August 23, 2021 by a high court in Rivers State. Elder Yemi Akinwonmi, who was then Deputy National Chairman (South), was picked to replace him a few days after the court gave its ruling.

And there was also Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola who was removed as PDP National Secretary by an Abuja federal high court in January 2013, barely a year after he assumed office. Oyinlola was immediately replaced with Prof Wale Oladipo as substantive National Secretary.

Oynilola did not bother to challenge the ruling of the high court that sacked him. He quietly packed his bags from his office at the PDP Abuja national secretariat the next day and moved to his Okuku country home.

“You can see that in the referenced cases, the PDP did not allow the three top former NWC members to remain in their seats to appeal the court rulings that removed them”, recalled one of the stakeholders

In the case of Anyanwu, he left his seat as National Secretary to contest in the 2024 Imo State governorship election as the candidate of the PDP. He lost the election to the incumbent, Hope Uzodinma of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

But while he was away, PDP stakeholders in the Southeast had filled the vacuum Anyanwu’s absence created with Sunday Udeh-Okoye who was the party’s Deputy National Youth Leader.

Upon losing the election, Anyanwu returned to reclaim his seat, prompting Udeh-Okoye to drag him before an Enugu high court. The court sacked Anyanwu as National Secretary and declared Udeh-Okoye as the substantive National Secretary.

Dissatisfied with the ruling of the lower court, Anyanwu challenged his removal at the Court of Appeal, Enugu Division. But the appellate court affirmed his removal by the lower court.

However, attempts by Udeh-Okoye to take his position as National Secretary during the party’s BoT meeting on January 29, was resisted by Anyanwu and his supporters who physically dragged Udeh-Okoye out of the meeting venue amid fisticuffs.

Justifying his actions, Anyanwu claimed to have obtained a stay of execution of the judgment of the appellate court in Enugu at the Court of Appeal, Abuja.

He also claimed to have filed an appeal at the Supreme Court challenging the verdict of the Enugu Division of the Court of Appeal. He declared that he remained the party’s National Secretary pending the determination of his appeal by the apex court.

But lawyers, including the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, have pointed out that the verdict of the Enugu Division of the appellate court that sacked Anyanwu was a declarative one, and as such, cannot be stayed.

They also maintained that even if Anyanwu had obtained a stay of execution as he claimed, such order can only last for 14 days and cannot be a perpetual one.

Event watchers suspect that Anyanwu may as well be playing for time, hoping to drag his appeal at the Supreme Court beyond December 2025 when the PDP will be holding its national convention where a new set of NWC members are expected to be elected.

By then, his four-year tenure as National Secretary would have expired and retaining his seat up to that period would allow him play a strategic role in the planning and execution of the upcoming convention.

The rift in the party further deepened last Wednesday with claims by the Senate Minority Leader, Senator Abba Moro during the Senate’s plenary session.

Amid the hullaballoo generated by the defection of the senator representing Delta North, Ned Nwoko, Moro, declared that Anyanwu remained the National Secretary pending the determination of his appeal at the Supreme Court. This was clearly at variance with the position of the PDP Governors and the BoT recognising Udeh-Okoye as National Secretary.

Incidentally, by virtue of his position as Minority Leader, Senator Moro is the leader of the PDP National Assembly Caucus. It is yet to be seen whether Moro’s views reflected the position of the party’s National Assembly Caucus, or that the views were personal to him.

The lingering crisis may threaten the much awaited National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting, which the governors directed the party’s leadership to convene on March 13.

There are growing fears of possible violence with Anyanwu insisting on being the National Secretary while the governors and the BoT have endorsed Udeh-Okoye for the position.

Party members are apprehensive of a repeat of the violence that characterised the January 29 BoT meeting when attempts by Udeh-Okoye to take his seat at the meeting as National Secretary was physically resisted by thugs believed to be Anyanwu’s hirelings.

Concerned stakeholder describe what is playing out at the PDP as a display of might over right by some vested interests who are holding the party by the jugular.

They recall, with regret, that the man who saw to the immediate exit of Ayu and Secondus when they were removed by high courts in their states, is the same person instigating Anyanwu to flout the rule of law.

Could the immediate past governor of Kaduna State, Nasir el-Rufai be right when he said a few days ago, that there seems to be a deliberate project to destroy opposition parties? That there are internal mercenaries in the PDP, hired and motivated to destroy the party?

And while the baiting game continues, there seem to be more potential “puppet mercenaries” scrambling for space on the puppeteer’s string.

Why Anyanwu Must Go, By PDP Stakeholders is first published on The Whistler Newspaper