S/Court Sets Aside Sack Of Anyanwu As PDP’s Nat’l Secretary

The apex court has nullified the judgments of the Court of Appeal and Federal High Court, which sacked Senator Samuel Anyanwu as National Secretary of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

A five-member panel of the apex court on Friday, held that the issue of who is the National Secretary of the PDP borders on the internal affairs of a political party which is not justiciable.

Anyanwu had approached the apex court to set aside the majority judgment of the Court of Appeal and the trial court which had sacked him as National Secretary on account of participating in the 2023 governorship election in Imo State.

Anyanwu, through his lawyer, Mr Ken Njemanze, SAN, had argued that the two lower courts erred in law when they dabbled into the issue of the internal affairs of the PDP challenging the right of Aniagu Emmanuel to bring the suit against Anyanwu at the Federal High Court, adding that he cannot be an advocate of Udeh Okoye, nominated to serve out the tenure of Anyanwu.

The PDP had appointed Okoye to serve out the tenure of Anyanwu on the grounds that Anyanwu had relinquished his position of National Secretary, when he purchased the expression of interest and nomination form of the PDP and subsequently emerged as the candidate of the PDP in the governorship election in Imo State in 2023.

Besides, he maintained that the issue of who is the authentic National Secretary of the PDP is not what any court should entertain and urged the court to allow his appeal and reserve his sack by the two lower courts.

Reacting, counsel to Emmanuel disagreed that the issue was purely that of an internal affairs of the PDP, pointing out that Anyanwu cannot having gone to participate in the Imo State governorship election then return to assume his position of National Secretary.

The respondent through his lawyer Chief Paul Erokoro, SAN, further argued that the court still looked into the issue of the leadership of political parties, when the need arises, as in the instant case, adding that the apex court has been inconsistent with the issue.

Delivering judgment on Friday, the apex court agreed with Anyanwu that the issue before the court centered around the leadership of the PDP, which is not justiciable explaining that, “the trial court and majority judgment of the Court of Appeal had it wrong when they assumed jurisdiction to entertain the suit”.

According to him, the few exceptions where the court can dabble into the internal affairs of a political party, are when the Constitution provided such grounds or there was criminal findings or the party breached its own laws and regulations.

Tukur stated that, “The respondents did not show how the guidelines and regulations of the party were violated” in the instant case.

Besides, the apex court held that the plaintiff, Aniagu Emmanuel, who initiated the suit at the trial court lacked the necessary legal backing to do so, since he did not show how he was affected by who is the National Secretary of the PDP.

He described Emmanuel as a “busybody interloper ” who failed to show what harm he stands to suffer with Anyanwu as the National Secretary. hence observed that Udeh Okoye, who was the beneficiary of the sack of Anyanwu as National Secretary, was not joined as a party in the suit in line with the law.

Garry Ochigbo, Edited By Blessing Nyor