PDP Leadership Crisis Deepens as BoT Rejects Anyanwu’s Reinstatement, Insists on June 30 NEC Meeting
The internal crisis within the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) took a fresh turn on Thursday as the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT) declared the reinstatement of Senator Samuel Anyanwu as National Secretary and the cancellation of the 100th National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting as unconstitutional and invalid.
In a statement signed by BoT Chairman, Senator Adolphus Wabara, the board strongly criticised the actions of the party’s Acting National Chairman, Umar Damagum, accusing him of flouting the PDP constitution and acting beyond his authority.
Wabara insisted that the resolution reached at the 99th NEC meeting, which scheduled the 100th session for June 30, remains binding on all party organs and members in line with Section 31(3) of the PDP Constitution.
“No organ, group or individual has the authority to cancel, alter, or postpone the 100th NEC meeting already set by NEC for June 30,” the BoT chairman declared, warning that any attempt to do so is a direct affront to the party’s constitutional order.
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The PDP had been embroiled in a protracted dispute over the office of National Secretary following Anyanwu’s emergence as the party’s governorship candidate in the 2023 Imo State election. The South East zone subsequently nominated Sunday Ude-Okoye as his replacement. Although the Court of Appeal upheld Ude-Okoye’s nomination, the Supreme Court later ruled that the matter fell within the internal affairs of the PDP, effectively returning the issue to the party’s discretion.
Following the apex court’s verdict, the PDP Governors’ Forum recommended that the deputy national secretary, Setonji Koshoedo, assume the role in acting capacity, pending a fresh nomination from the South East. This decision was ratified by the National Working Committee (NWC) and deferred to the 100th NEC meeting for final consideration.
However, in a surprising move, Damagum on Wednesday announced the reinstatement of Anyanwu and the cancellation of the NEC meeting. The development followed a meeting between some PDP leaders and officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which had raised concerns over procedural issues in the party’s notification regarding the NEC gathering.
Wabara, however, dismissed Damagum’s action, describing it as a gross abuse of office and a violation of the PDP’s constitution. He stressed that the acting chairman had no authority to reverse a collective decision of NEC or to reinstate Anyanwu unilaterally.
“The directive by the NWC at its 600th meeting for the Deputy National Secretary to act remains valid and has not been set aside by either the NWC or NEC. The purported reinstatement of Anyanwu is both spurious and unconstitutional,” Wabara added.
The BoT chair maintained that the June 30 NEC meeting would hold as scheduled and urged party members to disregard any contrary information. He reaffirmed that Koshoedo remains the acting national secretary pending a valid decision by the appropriate party organ.
Wabara concluded by emphasising the BoT’s resolve to uphold the integrity of the PDP, stating that “no individual interest is greater than the institutional stability of the party.”