PDP Secretaryship Tussle: Court Fines Anyanwu for Delaying Judgment

A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on Monday, April 28, 2025, imposed a fine of N150,000 on Senator Samuel Anyanwu, for delaying the judgment of his lawsuit challenging his impending removal as the National Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP.

The court presided over by Justice Inyang Ekwo fined Anyanwu following the request by his counsel, Ken Njemanze, SAN, for the court’s permission to file a motion to amend the lawsuit, despite the fact that the case was already scheduled for judgment.

Justice Ekwo however, scheduled the hearing of the motion for May 19, 2025 and directed that the fine be settled before the next court date.

Justice Ekwo had set the judgment date for March 25, following the completion of arguments by counsels to both the Appellant and Defendants regarding the case aimed at preventing Anyanwu’s removal as national secretary of the PDP.

The Court therefore directed Mr. Njemanze to provide it with the Supreme Court’s ruling issued on March 21 within seven days.

Anyanwu had named the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and Umar Damagun, the acting National Chairman of the PDP, as the first and second defendants.

In the motion ex-parte with number FHC/ABJ/CS/254/2025, submitted by Mr. Njemanze on February 13, Anyanwu sought two requests namely; “An interim injunction preventing INEC from accepting or acting on any correspondence from the PDP not signed by him until the hearing and resolution of the motion for an interlocutory injunction and An interim injunction restraining Mr. Damagun from sending any correspondence purportedly from the PDP signed solely by him without Anyanwu’s countersignature.

On February 28, the court added the PDP and Mr. Udeh-Okoye as third and fourth defendants, respectively, along with Ali Odela and Setonji Koshoedo as the fifth and sixth defendants, with Odela being the national vice chairman for the PDP South-East and Koshoedo serving as the party’s deputy national secretary.

At the hearing, Njemanze acknowledged that the case was fixed for judgment, but stated he had a motion to amend their original submission to clarify the issues at stake.

At that point, Justice Ekwo questioned the appropriateness of introducing an amendment on a judgment date, to which Njemanze responded by citing Order 17, Rule 1 of the Federal High Court, which grants the court discretionary power to amend processes before judgment.

The trial judge then inquired if the defendants had been served, to which INEC’s counsel, Ahmed Mohammed, confirmed receipt but indicated they would not respond. However, Akintayo Balogun, representing Mr. Damagun, said that while they had been served, the application could not be considered as the court was scheduled for judgment.

Similarly, E.E. Ekere, representing Mr. Udeh-Okoye, confirmed they were served and intended to respond, while J.A. Musa, counsel for Mr. Koshoedo, asserted they had not received service.

But, Njemanze insisted that all defendants had been duly served.

Consequently, Justice Ekwo adjourned the case to May 19 for hearing and enforced the N150,000 fine against the plaintiff’s counsel due to the disruption of the proceedings.