The Supreme Court has reserved its judegment in an appeal filed by Senator Samuel Anyanwu against the leadership of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
Anyanwu is seeking to nullify his removal as the National Secretary of the party.
The apex court, on Monday, in Abuja, reserved the judgement after taking arguments from Anyanwu’s lawyer, Kingsley Njemanze, SAN, and Chief Paul Erokoro, SAN, who stood for Aniagu Emmanuel.
Justice Musa Uwani Aba-Aji, who led the 5-man panel of Justices that heard the matter, said that the date for the delivery of the judgement would be communicated to all parties when ready.
Anyanwu, who was removed from office on the account of his resignation to contest the last Imo State governorship election which he lost, had sued the PDP leadership for blocking him to continue to remain in office having lost his gubernatorial ambition.
At the Monday’s proceedings, Anyanwu urged the Supreme Court to void and set aside the
the judgments of the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal in Enugu, which had in their concurrent judgements removed him as PDP National Secretary.
He insisted that having lost his gubernatorial adventure in Imo State governorship poll in 2023, he should be allowed to stage a comeback to retain the same office he resigned from.
However, counsel to Aniagu Emmanuel, Chief Paul Erokoro, SAN, told the Justices that Anyanwu’s prayer violated the Constitution of the PDP, adding that having resigned as the National Secretary to contest another election, he cannot be allowed to return to the office.
PDP and Ambassador Iliya Damagun, who are the 2nd and 3rd Respondents in the appeal, did not file any process for or against Anyanwu’s suit.
However, the 4th respondent, Ali Odeifa, objected to the request of Anyanwu’s bid to return to the office of the National Secretary.
Odeifa, who was represented by lawyer Okwudili Anozie, urged the apex court to dismiss Anyawu’s suit for being frivolous, baseless and lacking in merit.
In an enquiry by Justice Emmanuel Akomaye Agim to know whether Supreme Court has jurisdiction in the leadership of the PDP, Paul Erokoro replied that the Court had not been consistently in its decisions on such matters.
Erokoro SAN drew the attention of the Court to the matter of a former National Chairman of PDP, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, on the same leadership dispute where he said that the Supreme Court assumed jurisdiction and delivered judgement that settled the matter against Sherrif.
Earlier, the Court had dismissed the request brought before it by Anyanwu seeking to stay the execution of the judgement of the Court of Appeal and that of the Federal High Court that removed him as the National Secretary of the PDP.
The apex court threw out the request when Anyanwu, in a dramatic turn, applied for withdrawal of the request.
Justice Musa Uwani Aba-Aji dismissed the request when Kingsley Njemanze, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria withdrew the request on behalf of his client.
Recall that the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal in Enugu had in their concurrent judgements removed Anyanwu as PDP National Secretary.
However, at Monday’s proceedings, Anyanwu backed down, urging the Supreme Court to allow him withdraw the bid to stop the execution of the judgements against him.
The Court of Appeal, sitting in Enugu, had last December upheld a High Court decision that sacked Anyanwu as the National Secretary of the PDP.
The appellate court subsequently upheld Chief Sunday Ude-Okoye as the substantive National Secretary of the main opposition party.
In the lead judgement delivered by Justice Ridwan Abdullahi, the Court of Appeal held that Anyanwu‘s appeal was incompetent and lacking in merit.
According to the appellate court, the appellant violated the PDP’s constitution by laying claim to the National Secretary position having contested and emerged as the PDP candidate in the 2024 governorship election in Imo State.
Dissatisfied, Anyanwu last month approached the apex court to set aside the judgements of the two lower courts and recognise him as the authentic National Secretary of the PDP.
