PDP NWC Divided Over Affirmation Of Udeh- Okoye As Nat’l Scribe

Members of the Peoples Dem­ocratic Party’s (PDP) National Working Committee (NWC), on Wednesday, clashed over affirma­tion of Hon. Sunday Udeh-Okoye as the party’s national secretary.

Recall that PDP has been em­broiled in crisis over who occu­pies the party’s national secretary position.

This development has divided the party’s NWC and other stake­holders.

Sen. Samuel Anyanwu and Hon. Sunday Udeh-Okoye have been having a legal battle over the position of the national secretary, until the Appeal Court judgment in Enugu on December 20, af­firmed Udeh-Okoye as the right­ful person to occupy the position.

In his statement on Wednesday, the spokesman of PDP, Hon. Debo Ologunagba, said that the party’s NWC at its meeting on Wednes­day, February 12, 2025, extensively considered the memo dated 11th February, 2025, presented by the Acting National Chairman on the issue of the National Secretary of the PDP.

“The NWC in considering the memo thoroughly examined the attached documents namely: the declaratory judgement of the High Court of Enugu, the judgment of the Court of Ap­peal, Enugu Division, which pro­nounced and declared Rt. Hon. S.K.E Udeh-Okoye as the Nation­al Secretary of the PDP; the legal opinion and advice by Dr. Kabiru T. Turaki (SAN) as well as that of the National Legal Adviser of the PDP.

“After due consideration of the memo and the attachments, the NWC overwhelmingly recognis­es, acknowledges and confirms Rt. Hon. S.K.E Udeh-Okoye as the substantive national secretary of the PDP in full compliance with and obedience to the judgement of the Court of Appeal, recognis­ing that there is no subsisting or superseding judgment or order from any court of superior au­thority or hierarchy.

“The NWC has commenced the transmission of its reso­lution/decision affirming Rt. Hon. S.K.E Udeh-Okoye as the PDP National Secretary to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and other relevant bodies for recognition in line with the judgment of the Court of Appeal.

“The NWC commends all or­gans, leaders, critical stakehold­ers and members of the PDP for their steadfastness, respect for the rule of law and loyalty to the party at this critical time.

“The NWC reassures that it will continue to be guided strictly by the provisions of the constitu­tion of the PDP (as amended in 2017), operational guidelines, the rule of law and the vision of our founding fathers for the stability and growth of the party, entrench­ment of democracy and well-be­ing of Nigerians.”

Reacting, Anyanwu said NWC never met, adding that the affir­mation of Udeh-Okoye is Ologun­agba and few others position.

He said: “The NWC never met; that is Ologunagba and a few oth­er’s position. The matter was only discussed on the WhatsApp plat­form. Therefore, the NWC has not met regarding it, as the matter is still in court.”

The Acting National Chair­man of the party, Amb. Umar Da­magun, it was gathered said that NWC never met physical to adopt any position.

Anyanwu, Ortom, Others Shun Ikimi-Led Disciplinary Panel

Meanwhile, former governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom, and embattled National Secre­tary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Samuel Anyanwu, on Wednesday shunned the Tom- Ikimi led disciplinary committee of the party.

This is even as Ortom gave the Disciplinary Committee 48 hours to apologise to him for defaming his person or face legal action.

After waiting for three hours, the disciplinary committee told journalists that it decided to re­schedule its sitting for fair hear­ing. The panel has rescheduled its meeting for March 4, 2025.

In his explanation, Ikimi said the committee sent invitations through courier service particu­larly DHL to Ortom and Anyan­wu.

“We sent the invitations through DHL and we have evi­dence that they received them. But in the case of Ortom, they said it was not received. So we are giving them another opportunity by resending the invitation.”

On Anyanwu, the committee disclosed that he complained about not being well and added that yesterday was his medical appointment.

Addressing newsmen after waiting for three hours, Ikimi said, “Last week Wednesday, we went through the various peti­tions before us and two petitions were slated for hearing today.

“One petition was against the National Secretary, Senator Samuel Anyanwu, and the oth­er against some members of the party from Benue State, includ­ing former governor of Benue State, Dr. Samuel Ortom and ten others.

“We were prepared to hear the petition today; the petitions were served on them directly and through courier and we have evi­dence that the petitions arrived at their destinations.

“However, we could not pro­ceed today due to correspondenc­es received from these two per­sons we were supposed to meet.

“Former Secretary, Senator Anyanwu, sent us a letter indicat­ing that he was not well and that he had medical challenges, and a medical appointment for today; he backed that up with a letter from his hospital and his doctor; so, he therefore asked for another date.

“In the case of Samuel Ortom and others, they claimed that they had not received the petitions which were sent to them; but the petitions were sent and we have evidence that they were sent to them.

“However, the committee has met and because we believe that we should give everyone fair hear­ing and that we should not ignore issues like health challenges, we have decided to defer the hearing by another two to three weeks so that they will assure that they re­ceived the petitions sent to them. So, we have deferred the hearing to 4th of March.

“We believe that all will be well and the committee is going to be fair to everyone.”

Fielding questions from news­men, Ikimi pointed out that the party cannot do anything if any act is committed unless petitions are sent to the committee.

He said: “Whether acts were committed against the party in 2015, 2019, 2020 or any other year, we can do nothing about them except there are petitions sent to this committee.

“This committee does not write petitions, we only attend to petitions that are sent to us. So, if there’s no petition against somebody, we are not going to do anything about it because that is not our business. I’m not out here to write petitions and deal with what is seen in newspapers.

“Secondly, I cannot tell you what the consequences would be for anyone because we have not heard from them.

“With regard to Anyanwu and whether he is still the secretary or not, it has nothing to do with this committee. The petitions were sent to Anyanwu as secretary of the PDP; if he is no longer secre­tary, we don’t know.”

Meanwhile, Ortom has asked the Tom Ikimi-led disciplinary committee to tender public apol­ogy to him for allegedly violating his fundamental rights in breach of the party’s constitution.

In a letter signed by his law­yer, C. T. Mue, Ortom cited many sections of the constitution of the PDP which he said were vi­olated by the disciplinary com­mittee.

“The premature publication of allegations against our client, without being duly informed, as provided by Section 57(4) of the constitution of PDP 2017 (as amended), has led to public ridi­cule and reputational harm,” the letter reads.

Ortom said he was never no­tified of any allegations before a public statement was made by the disciplinary committee against him.

He said: “Despite this clear pro­vision, our client was neither for­mally notified of any allegations in writing before the press release was issued. This constitutes a gross violation of the provisions of the PDP constitution.”

Ortom further said that Sec­tion 57(7), “clearly states that no Executive Committee at any lev­el, except the National Executive Committee (NEC), shall entertain any question of discipline relat­ing to members of the National Executive Committee, Deputy Governors, or members of the National Assembly.

“Thus, the National Disci­plinary Committee lacks the jurisdiction to entertain any dis­ciplinary action against them, making the purported inquiry procedurally defective and un­constitutional.

“We demand that the National Disciplinary Committee immedi­ately withdraw the press release issued on 5th February 2025.

“That a written apology be is­sued to our client within 48 hours of receiving this notice.

“That the National Disci­plinary Committee cease and de­sist from further public commen­tary on our client’s matter until they have been formally notified of any allegations and given an opportunity to respond.

“Failure to comply with these demands within 48 hours from re­ceipt of this letter will leave our client with no choice but to seek redress in a court of law, including instituting a defamation lawsuit and petitioning law enforcement agencies for violations of the Cy­bercrimes Act 2015.