FCT, Abuja – The planned resumption of two factional secretaries of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Samuel Anyanwu and Sunday Ude-Okoye, may escalate the crisis in the party.
TimesNow.com.ng recalls that recently, a scuffle occurred between both camps.
As reported by The Punch today, Monday, January 11, 2025, both factional PDP secretaries disclosed that they would resume at the party’s headquarters later in the day.
In an interview with the newspaper, Imo-born Anyanwu asserted that he remains the secretary and would resume office today, Monday, January 13.
Anyawu added:
On his part, Ude-Okoye stated that his meeting with party leaders on Sunday evening, January 12, would shape his schedule for the week.
However, he reaffirmed that, as the secretary, he would resume his duties and be at the PDP’s headquarters today, Monday, January 13, if necessary.
He noted:
Meanwhile, Diran Odeyemi, former deputy national publicity secretary of the PDP, called for calm.
Urging peace, Odeyemi said:
TimesNow.com.ng reports that the opposition party has been embroiled in an internal crisis since 2022, which has polarised its national working committee (NWC).
The crisis took a new twist in October 2024 when a faction in the NWC suspended Anyanwu and Umar Damagum over alleged anti-party activities. However, the Damagum-backed faction also suspended Kamaldeen Ajibade, the national legal adviser, and Debo Ologunagba, the national spokesperson, for the same offence.
Subsequently, Ologunagba’s faction announced the appointment of Yayari Mohammed as the party’s acting national chair.
The federal high court in Abuja restrained the national executive council (NEC), the highest decision-making organ of the party, and BoT from removing Damagum as the acting national chair.
In a judgment delivered via Zoom, Peter Lifu, the presiding judge, ordered that apart from Damagum, no other person must be recognised as the PDP acting national chair until the party’s convention in December 2025.
Earlier, TimesNow.com.ng reported that Orji Kalu, the senator representing Abia North, received over 8,000 people who defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC), from other political parties.
Speaking while receiving the defectors led by Patrick Ikechi Anya and Kelvin Jumbo Onumah, Kalu expressed his satisfaction with the mass defection even though the party is not in power in Abia state presently.
Source: TimesNow.com.ng
