The crisis ravaging the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) took another dimension yesterday as supporters of Samuel Anyanwu, the embattled party National Secretary, and those of Udeh Okoye, who is also claiming the office, clashed during the party’s 79th Board of Trustees (BoT) meeting.
The PDP has been embroiled in a leadership crisis, as Samuel Anyanwu and Sunday Udey-Okoye have continued to claim the office of National Secretary.
A High Court and the Court of Appeal, both sitting in Enugu, removed Anyanwu from office on December 20, 2024, and January 14 and recognised Udey-Okoye as the PDP national secretary.
Anyanwu, however, later secured a stay of execution order from the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, in an appeal No. CA/E/24/2024 on the judgment earlier delivered by the Enugu division of the appellate court.
The latest crisis started a few minutes after the meeting’s opening ceremony when non-BoT members and journalists were asked to leave the hall for a closed-door session.
As the indoor session was about to commence, the party’s former National Youth Leader, Sunday Udey-Okoye, was dragged out of the hall by the political thugs, claiming that he was not a BoT member.
Thereafter, the thugs, suspected to be loyal to Anyanwu, mounted the hall, shouting that Udey-Okoye could not enter again.
The situation forced the supporters of Udey-Okoye to mobilise themselves at the hall’s entrance to confront one of Anyanwu’s aides, who quickly ran inside and closed the door.
Some political thugs were also seen scaling the fence of the PDP national secretariat to support their respective leaders.
It took the intervention of the police and other security agents around to bring the situation under control using pepper spray.
More security personnel from the Nigeria Police Force, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, and the military were mobilised to the party secretariat to restore normalcy.
The meeting was chaired by Umar Damagum, the acting National Chairman of the party, and Adolphus Wabara, the BoT Chairman.
*Turaki heads c’ttee to resolve crisis ahead of Feb 25 NEC meeting
However, at the end of the BoT meeting, the party set up a committee to interface with the National Working Committee (NWC) and report back to it.
The Chairman of the BoT, Wabara, who addressed journalists after the meeting, told newsmen that the committee headed by former Minister of Special Duties, Aminu Turaki (SAN), is to interface with the party, study the situation, and report back to the BoT for further action.”
He said the acting National Chairman of the party, Umar Damagun, had assured the BoT that the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting slated for February 2025 would still take place as planned.
He said the chairman assured everyone that all raging party issues, including the position of the National Secretary, would be addressed and resolved at the NEC meeting.
The BoT chairman described the initial violent clash earlier before the meeting over the position of the National Secretary as a family affair.
“You can see that the two claimants to the office of the National Secretary, Senator Samuel Anyanwu and Ude-Okoye, both attended the meeting.”
The PDP BoT also expressed concern over what it termed a worsening economic and security situation in the country, which it said is caused by the ill-conceived and ill-implemented policy of the All Progressives Party (APC) administration at the national level.
Those present at the meeting include the acting National Chairman of the party, Umar Damagun, former governor of Ebonyi, Sam Egwu, former governor of Enugu, Okwesilieze Nwodo, former governor of Kaduna, Ahmed Makarfi, former governor of Niger, Babangida Aliu, among others
