Facts have emerged on how the report of former Minister of Special Duties, Kabiru Tanimu Turaki SAN, to the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) sealed the fate of the embattled National Secretary, Senator Samuel Anyanwu.
Anyanwu, who was again sacked by the Court of Appeal, Enugu Division, on December 20 last year, which upheld his earlier sack by the Federal High Court in December 2023, had refused to vacate office for Sunday Ude-Okoye, whose nomination by South East stakeholders to serve out Anyanwu’s tenure, was upheld by the court.
Turaki was directed by BoT after its meeting two weeks ago, to study the court judgements on the contentious secretarial position and advise it accordingly.
The former minister in his report, which was submitted and adopted by the board at its meeting last Wednesday, said in the eyes of the law, Sunday Ude-Okoye is the National Secretary of the party.
“All I have been trying to say is that as of Wednesday, the 27th of January, when the BoT sat in its 79th regular meeting, the National Secretary of our party in the eyes of the law is Hon. S. K. E. Ude-Okoye, and he had been the National Secretary since the 22nd day of December, 2023.
“This position will continue till the appeals against the respective judgements of the Enugu State High Court and the Court of Appeal Enugu are heard and determined one way or another by the Supreme Court,” Turaki said.
The former minister stated that he was told that Anyanwu appealed against the judgement and has obtained stay of execution but added that the Appeal judgement was a declarative one, which cannot be stayed.
He further argued that when the court sat on January 13, 2025 to hear the application for stay of execution, that had two main prayers, “for whatever reasons, the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division was unable to hear that application on that day, and so adjourned same to the 27th of January, 2025.”
Anyanwu had asked the court to stay the execution of the judgement of the Court Appeal delivered on December 20, 2024, pending the hearing and determination of the appeal he filed at the Supreme Court of Nigeria, and for “an injunction restraining the 1st respondents, their agents, privies or otherwise however described, from enforcing or giving effect to the judgement of this court delivered on the 20th of December, 2024, pending the hearing and determination of the appeal filed at the Supreme Court of Nigeria,”
But Turaki noted that while the court granted the order that all parties maintain the status quo ante bellum pending the hearing and the determination of the motion on notice, “the order of the court was an interim one”, pending the hearing of the motion on notice, and not “the appeal, that would have made it interlocutory.”
According to him: “If the order was pending the hearing of the appeal, it would then have lasted forever, until the appeal is heard, no matter how long it takes for the appeal to be heard.
“But because the intention of the court was just to give an interim order, the life span of that order cannot exceed two weeks.
“And that’s why the court adjourned the hearing of the motion on notice to the 27th of January, which will be complete two weeks from the 13th of January when the order was made.”
The former minister said the confusion is what the court meant as “status quo ante bellum as at the 13th of January, 2025,” arguing that, “with all due respect, the status quo ante bellum as at the 13th of January, 2025…is one that has Hon. S. K. E. Ude-Okoye as the substantive National Secretary of our party.
“If the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division therefore says that the status quo ante bellum should be maintained, the plain meaning of the directive of the Court is that he should remain in office until the 27th, when the court will hear the application and determine whether his continued occupation of the office should be interfered with or not.”
He, however, maintained that the judgement was a declaratory one, which cannot be stayed.
“But assuming, for the sake of argument, that it can be stayed, and was so stayed which is not conceded, then unless renewed or extended, the order of the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division made on the 13th of January, 2025 will automatically extinguish, die and cease to exist by the 27th of January,” he said.
Turaki said he was told by both Senator Anyanwu and Ude-Okoye that the court did not sit on January 27, and parties were told that a new date would be communicated to them in due course.
“So, this being the case, the order of 13th, assuming that it had changed the status of Hon. Okoye from being the substantive National Secretary of our party, which is not conceded, it still would have died a natural death on the 27th, when the court was unable to sit and extend its life span, if the need for that arose,” he concluded.
Based on the report, the BoT told the National Working Committee (NWC) to swear Ude-Okoye as National Secretary without delay.
The board, in a communiqué at the end of its meeting on Wednesday, said as the conscience of the party, as enshrined under Section 13 (1)(r) of the Constitution of the PDP (as amended in 2017), it adopted the Turaki’s report and recognises “Ude-Okoye as the substantive National Secretary of the PDP in full obedience to the declaratory judgement of the High Court of Enugu as also upheld by the Court of Appeal; there being no contrary or overriding judgement from any court of superior jurisdiction.”
BoT Chairman, Senator Adolphus Wabara, who read the communiqué, stated that under Section 32 (5)(a) of the Constitution of the PDP (as amended in 2017), the BoT has the power to “ensure highest standards of morality in all the activities of the party by acting as the conscience of the party, with powers to call to order any officer of the party, whose conduct falls below the norms.
“The BoT urges all party organs, critical stakeholders, leaders and members across the country as well as all democracy development partners and institutions to be guided by the judegment of the Court of Appeal with regard to the position of the National Secretary of the PDP.”
PDP governors had also called on the NWC to implement the Appeal Court judgement and swear Ude-Okoye as National Secretary.
Sunday Telegraph gathered that 14 out 17 NWC members have accepted Ude-Okoye as National Secretary.
The party had lost many seats it won in the National Assembly and the Plateau State House of Assembly in the 2023 general elections as a result of non-compliance with a 2020 court judgement against the its congresses, which produced the then state party executive committees.
There are fears that the PDP may suffer the same fate in Anambra governorship scheduled for November 8 this year, and other subsequent elections, if it fails to resolve the imbroglio surrounding the National Secretaryship.
This is because, Senator Anyanwu, who is holding tight to the position, based on Turaki’s report, is not qualified to sign any document nominating candidate for an election.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), in its schedule of activities for the election released last year, gave political parties wishing to field candidate for the election, between March 20 and April 10, to conduct acceptable primaries for the nomination of their candidates.
The commission also said the portal for uploading of nominated candidates for the election will open from April 18 and closes on May 12. Party Chairmen and Secretaries are to sign the nomination form to be uploaded on the portal.
As at last week, Anyanwu was still in office.
PDP has scheduled its National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting, for March 13. It is hoped that the matter will be resolved before May 12, the last day for the upload of candidates on INEC portal for the Anambra governorship.
Party sources disclosed that this was the second time Turaki’s legal advice has proved invaluable to the PDP, recalling that he saved the party a barrage of court cases in 2021 when NEC wanted to force mass resignation of members of Prince Uche Secondus-led NWC.
