Appeal Court Sacks Anyanwu As PDP National Secretary, Affirms Ude Okoye
The Court of Appeal Court sitting in Enugu on Friday, December 20, 2024, sacked Senator Samuel Anyanwu as National Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The Appellate Court accordingly, declared Hon. Ude Okoye as the new National Secretary of PDP to complete the remaining tenure created as a result of the vacancy in the office when Senator Anyanwu left the position of National Secretary to run for the governorship election of Imo State.
The Appeal Court upheld the judgement of the Enugu State High Court which hitherto sacked Anyanwu as PDP Secretary, and upheld the nomination of Hon Okoye by the South East PDP Executives as replacement for Anyanwu.
The Court in a lead Judgement delivered by Justice Ridwan Abdullahi held that Anyawu’s claim to the PDP secretaryship despite contesting and emerging as a PDP governorship candidate was a grave violation of the Party’s constitution. Justice Abdullahi declared that Anyawu’s appeal against the lower court judgement lacked merit.
In their reaction to the Appeal Court judgement, the Coalition of Opposition Lawmakers, hailed the judgment, describing it as the “dawn of a new era in PDP and an end to the shameless politics of sabotage, betrayal, political materialism and sellout”.
A statement by the spokesman of the Coalition, Hon. Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere, said the Appeal Court judgment marked the beginning to the end of Damagun/Anyanwu’s evil politics against PDP.
Ugochinyere said the opposition lawmakers were happy with the judgement and therefore pledged loyalty to Ude Okoye as the substantive National Secretary of the PDP.
The statement further said; “We want to salute the courage of the Appeal Court to have ended this madness by first of all upholding the judgment of the Enugu State High Court that recognizes the decision of South East PDP leaders that nominated Ude Okoye as substantive National Secretary to complete the remaining tenure created by the vacancy in the office by the resignation of Samuel Anyanwu as the National secretary when he went to run for governorship.
“The Appeal Court has restated the principle of the PDP constitution that anyone elected to the executive committee of the party at any level may resign his or her office by giving 30 days notice in writing to the executive committee, except in cases of vying for an elective office which shall be effective within the period stipulated by NEC.
“The law has said that you should resign. When you choose to run for the election, you have chosen to resign. We thank the Appeal Court; the opposition lawmakers are one hundred percent with our new National Secretary, Hon Ude Okoye,” it said.
