Following the fracas at its last meeting, the Board of Trustees (BoT) of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has told Senator Samuel Anyanwu and Hon Sunday 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.”
The national secretary of PDP is a member of the BoT of the party.
The tussle between Anyanwu and Ude-Okoye over who is national secretary of PDP resulted in a physical altercation at last week’s BoT meeting at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja, 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, sources at the BoT meeting confided in LEADERSHIP that the party elders asked the two contenders “to stay away from BoT meetings until the issue is resolved.”
The party leader who craved anonymity, added that they had to resort to this move to avoid such altercations from repeating, “because it appears they are not ready to back down. But we are confident that the committee will resolve the matter and all sides will abide by the position of the BoT.”
The source also denied it was wrong to assume that Ude-Okoye gate crashed, adding that “there was no way he would have come to the meeting if he was not invited.”
Another source who corroborated the stay off position of the BoT, said Ude-Okoye was asked to attend the meeting adding that “party leaders from his zone gave their blessing for his attendance of the meeting” after they unanimously reaffirmed him as national secretary of PDP in Enugu State barely a week before last week’s meeting in Abuja.
Recall that the national secretary position has been contentious since Anyanwu left to contest the Imo governorship election which he lost. South East had nominated Ude-Okoye as Anyanwu’s replacement leading to legal tussle which Anyanwu lost at the Appeal Court. The matter is before the Supreme Court.
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