PDP Shifts Congresses, Govs To Resolve National Scribe Stalemate Congresses

Governors of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are expected to take a stand on the stalemate over the national secretary position at their meeting in Ibadan, Oyo State on April 13.

Party sources told LEADERSHIP that the meeting is expected to resolve the continued grandstanding between the National Working Committee (NWC) and Senator Samuel Anyanwu over who is the national secretary of the party.

The battle for the secretary position has caused a partial grounding of activities in the main opposition party weeks after a Supreme Court ruling on March 20 on the matter as the key actors insist the ruling upheld their mandates.

The crisis led to potential governorship aspirants avoiding the party ahead of the Anambra State election.

It took an extension of the deadline for one aspirant to purchase the party’s form, a contrast to the 2021 experience which saw 16 aspirants pick the party’s forms.

Senator Samuel Anyanwu and Hon. Sunday Ude-Okoye, backed by the PDP South East leaders, have been locked in a battle for the national scribe seat since 2023.

Following high and appeal court judgments which favored Ude-Okoye, the PDP governors in January this year, endorsed him as national secretary of PDP.

The Board of Trustees (BoT) and the National Working Committee (NWC) also endorsed Ude-Okoye as national secretary in February, relying on the same judgments.

Anyanwu, who had opposed the governors and other party stakeholders’ recognition of Ude-Okoye, pursued his appeal at the Supreme Court, whose judgement in March, he said, certified him as national secretary.

Anyanwu argued that the apex court dismissed the verdicts of the High and Appeal courts which recognised Ude-Okoye as national secretary, noting that the lower courts shouldn’t have adjudicated on an interparty affair.

But the NWC insisted that Ude-Okoye is the national secretary, arguing that the Apex Court ruled that national scribe tussle is a party affair.

The national publicity secretary, Hon Debo Ologunagba, in defending this position, recounted that the party leaders from the South East zone had resolved to appoint Ude-Okoye as Anyanwu’s replacement in accordance with a directive from the NWC following the vacancy created by Anyanwu’s exit upon his emergence as PDP candidate in the Imo State governorship election in 2023.

Checks by LEADERSHIP revealed that the stalemate over the national scribe position has made operations at the party secretariat skeletal for most parts.

A top staff member of the party confided in LEADERSHIP that activities at the party had been largely slow because they were not sure who the national secretary is.

The staffer who pleaded anonymity as he was not allowed to speak to the press,  lamented that the ‘indications of how bad things have become in the party” is the “appalling outlook for the party ahead of the Anambra election” and the fact that the is being “overlooked in the critical conversation of the coalition movement.”

“We anticipate that the governors, at their meeting, would take a position on this and clarify the situation. But for now we are just drifting and hoping for the best,” the senior party staff said.

Meanwhile, the PDP has postponed its congresses for the North-Central, South-South, and South-West geopolitical zones, which were originally planned for today, April 12.

The PDP national publicity secretary Debo Ologunagba, who disclosed the postponement, said it was to show solidarity with Plateau State over recent killings and to allow governors in the affected zones to attend the PDP Governors’ Forum in Ibadan on April 13.

Ologunagba revealed that the South-West Zonal Congress is now set for April 16, with new dates for the North-Central and South-South congresses to be announced later.