The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has reinstated Samuel Anyanwu as the National Secretary of the party, following its meeting with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Tuesday.
The party has also suspended its planned National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting scheduled for 30th June, and instead, the planned meeting will be an expanded caucus.
Acting National Chairman of the party, Umar Damagun, announced the reinstatement at a news conference in Abuja.
‘Anyanwu is resuming as the national secretary, Damagum said.
‘At the next caucus, we will make a decision leading to a proper NEC. Like INEC said, they don’t have our notice, so we will have an extended caucus meeting on 30 June’, Damagun added.
The conference was attended by the chairman of the PDP Governors Forum, Bala Mohammed, and the former Senate President, Bukola Saraki.
The decision to reinstate the national secretary of the party followed Tuesday’s meeting with the INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, who explained why the commission cannot honour the invitation for the planned NEC meeting
INEC had turned down an invitation to the 100th NEC meeting of the PDP, citing the secretaryship tussle and how it has led to inconsistencies in signatures, contrary to the electoral body’s guidelines for political parties.
Last December, the court of appeal ruled that Sunday Udeh-Okoye should take Anyanwu’s place as the national secretary of the main opposition party.
In the same period, the South-East leadership of the PDP picked Udeh-Okoye to take over Anyanwu’s place following the latter’s gubernatorial candidacy in Imo State in 2023.
But Anyanwu went to court and got injunctions to stop his removal as the PDP secretary.
In December 2024, the appeal court dismissed the verdict of the high court, which stopped Anyanwu’s removal. It said judgement lacked merit.
However, Udeh-Okoye declared himself as the PDP national secretary. But in January, Anyanwu maintained he was the genuine candidate of the party.
