BY ANTHONY OCHELA, ABUJA
The Supreme Court has reserved judgment in an appeal filed by Sen. Samuel Anyanwu seeking to nullify his removal as the National Secretary of the People’s Democratic Party PDP.
The Court took the decision in Abuja on Monday after hearing arguments from Anyanwu’s counsel, Kingsley Njemanze, SAN, and that of Aniagu Emmanuel, Paul Erokoro, SAN.
Justice Uwani Aba-Aji who led the 5-man panel of on the matter said the date for the judgment would be communicated to parties later.
Anyanwu who was removed from office on account of his resignation to contest the last Imo governorship election, which he lost, had sued the PDP leadership for preventing him from continuing to remain in office having lost his gubernatorial ambition.
At the Monday’s proceedings, Anyanwu urged the Supreme Court to set aside the judgments of the Federal High court and the Court of Appeal in Enugu which had in their judgments removed him as PDP National Secretary.
On his part, Erokoro 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 Umar Damagum 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 Okwudili Anozie, urged the court to dismiss Anyawu suit for lacking in merit.
In an enquiry by Justice Emmanuel 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.
Emmakoro drew the attention of the Court to the matter of a former National Chairman of PDP, Sen. Ali Modu Sheriff on the same leadership dispute where he said that the Supreme Court assumed jurisdiction and delivered judgment 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 judgments of the Court of Appeal and that of the Federal High Court that removed him as the party’s National Secretary.
The court threw out the request when Njamanze withdrew the request on behalf of his client, Anyanwu.
The Federal High court and the Court of appeal in Enugu had in their concurrent judgments 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 judgments.
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 judgment 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 judgment of the two lower courts and recognize him as the authentic National Secretary of the PDP.
