PDP appoints new acting national secretary in defiance of court order

Setoji Kosheodo has been appointed as the acting national secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

At the conclusion of the PDP’s national working committee (NWC) meeting in Abuja on Tuesday, Umar Damagum, the party’s acting national chairman, declared Kosheodo’s appointment.

Previously, Koshoedo held the position of deputy national secretary for the PDP.

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According to Damagum, Kosheodo would take on an acting capacity until all judicial proceedings are settled.

“Due to conflicting court orders, we asked both parties to resign. We also decided to designate the deputy national secretary to serve as secretary while we work to resolve all outstanding issues, including the conflicting court orders and the resolutions from the Southeast,” Damagum stated.

It appears that there is no conflict as we are discussing this matter jointly.

The PDP’s appointment of Sunday Udeh-Okoye as its national secretary is in violation of a court ruling that requires the opposition party to recognise her.

In the Imo off-cycle governorship election that took place on November 11, Samuel Anyanwu, the national secretary of the PDP at the time, entered as the party’s candidate for governor.

On the grounds that he had turned into a governorship candidate, some party officials—among them Adolphus Wabara, the acting head of the PDP board of trustees (BoT)—asked Anyanwu to step down from his position as national secretary.

The federal capital territory (FCT) minister, Nyesom Wike, responded to Wabara by stating that he lacked the jurisdiction to choose who may hold the position of national secretary for the party.

The PDP’s south-east zonal executive committee nominated Udeh-Okoye on October 20 to take Anyanwu’s place as national secretary.

Anyanwu’s continued service as national secretary and his role as the PDP’s standard-bearer in Imo, according to the south-east PDP, would be a diversion.

October 23, Udeh-Okoye’s recognition as the party’s national secretary was mandated by a federal high court in Enugu to the PDP NWC.

The interim ruling, which required the PDP to acknowledge Udeh-Okoye as its national secretary within a day, was granted by Judge Cyprian Ajah.

In a move submitted on October 24, the PDP, Damagun, and Anyawu requested that the order be set aside on the grounds that “it was obtained by fraud and suppression of material facts.”

The PDP was ordered to recognise Udeh-Okoye as its national secretary by the court, which upheld the interim judgement on November 7.

Anyawu was prohibited from presenting himself as the national secretary of the party by a high court of the federal capital territory (FCT) on November 14.

In Saturday’s Imo governorship election, All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate Hope Uzodinma, the current governor, defeated Anyawu.