5 Days After Anyanwu/Ude-Okoye Scuffle, PDP BoT Meets Today

Barely five days after its dramatic meeting at the party’s national secretariat, the Board of Trustees (PDP) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will meet today.

For its meeting today, however, the party leaders will gather at Transcorps in Abuja to discuss the state of the party.

No formal explanation was given for holding the meeting away from Wadata, the party’s national secretariat.
Although the BoT has held meetings outside the party secretariat in the past, it was learnt that this meeting was scheduled to hold outside the party secretariat to avoid a repeat of the fiasco over the national secretary position.

The tussle between Senator Samuel Anyanwu and Hon Sunday Ude-Okoye over who is national secretary of PDP resulted in a physical altercation at last week’s BoT meeting, after one of Anyanwu’s aides attempted to physically stop Ude-Okoye from attending the meeting which he was invited to.

However, the BoT insisted on Ude-Okoye’s attendance at the meeting just as he was ushered to the high table.
As part of its resolutions however the BoT said its committee led by former minister of special duties, Barr Kabiru Tanimu Turaki SAN, to interface with the parties, study the situation and report to the Board for further action.
However, this BoT meeting also comes after last week’s resolution by PDP governors for the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) to accord recognition to Ude-Okoye as national secretary.

A resolution which was opposed by Anyanwu in a petition he wrote to the Inspector General of Police and other security agencies, threatening that there will be chaos if the governor’s resolution is obeyed.

A BoT member, who confided in LEADERSHIP, said “but it’s obvious why we had to move the meeting out of Wadata. We don’t want a repeat of rascally behavior at this gathering. We don’t want to be distracted by persons who are bent on holding on to positions even when it’s obvious you don’t enjoy the backing of your base.”

Recall that LEADERSHIP had on Monday reported that the BoT told Anyanwu and Ude-Okoye to stay off future BoT meetings until the dispute over the national secretary position is resolved.

LEADERSHIP learnt yesterday that that was part of the resolution reached by the BoT which, according to a source, was “very disappointed with the way events turned out.”