Controversy is raging in the leading opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) over Senator Samuel Anyanwu, who has not resigned from his position as national secretary of the party despite emerging as the PDP candidate for the November 11 governorship election in Imo State.
The development has triggered divergent views including moves by some stakeholders of the party to oust him as national secretary.
The South East stakeholders of the PDP at their meeting in Enugu at the weekend were said to have unanimously resolved to oust Anyanwu from office of secretary to enable him to face his campaign as Imo governorship candidate of the party.
They were also said to have agreed at the meeting that a former national youth leader of the party, Hon. S. K. E. Ude-Okoye from Enugu State should take over from Anyanwu as the new national secretary of the party.
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The PDP leader in the South East and national vice chairman, South East, Mr Ali Odefa, confirmed the development to Daily Trust yesterday.
In a terse message to our correspondent, Odefa said, “Yes, it is true.”
Sources in the party said the agitations to remove Anyanwu as National Working Committee (NWC) member was to enable him to concentrate on defeating the incumbent governor of Imo State, Hope Uzodimma of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
As it stands, members of the NWC are divided on the matter. A source told our correspondent that when the issue was raised at the last meeting of the NWC, many of the members were divided.
Recall that the NWC and the Board of Trustees (BoT) had expressed different feelings over the issue as party members have continued to wonder why Anyanwu has not resigned.
The BoT through its chairman and former Senate president, Adolphus Wabara, had asked Anyanwu to vacate his position in the interest of the party.
Wabara in a letter to the acting national chairman, Umar Damagum, said despite being a state governorship candidate of the party, Sen. Anyanwu is still holding on to the office of the national secretary of the party.
The letter reads in part, “Not only is this morally wrong, as no one is allowed to hold dual positions but also against the constitutional provision of our party, which provides for a mandatory requirement of resignation for any party office holder who wishes to contest any elective position. Please see section 47(5) of our constitution as amended.
“The usual practice is for him to have resigned earlier. However, in the wisdom of the NWC, he was allowed to continue in office till now. Nonetheless, the BoT, as the conscience of the party, has the constitutional authority to caution any member of the party acting in a way contrary to the guiding principles of our party and this is one of them.”
But the PDP national publicity secretary, Debo Ologunagba, told Daily Trust that “From our side, we are focused on the election. You are bringing in a controversy that does not exist. For us, we are focused on our election. I am in Imo for our campaign flag-off and that is more important to us.
“We are focused on winning the election; we will not listen to any distraction either from the opposition or anywhere it is coming from because we will not be distracted. We are not going to be talking about any controversy.”
Similarly, a former governor of Rivers State and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, in a letter addressed to Wabara and copied the PDP acting national chairman, Damagum, said the BoT lacks the moral authority to intervene in the matter.
Wike said, “The Board of Trustees (BoT) lacks the moral authority to intervene in the issue of who occupies or should occupy the office of the national secretary of the party.
“This is more so as the BoT was unable to use its good office as the conscience of the party to intervene in the crisis that engulfed the party in the run-up to the 2023 general elections when officers of the party blatantly violated the constitution of the party.”
Wike, however, appealed to Wabara and the entire BoT to eschew crisis capable of derailing the party’s preparations for the governorship election.
