The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on Tuesday dismissed a suit filed by Senator Samuel Anyanwu seeking official recognition as the National Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), bringing a legal end to one of the party’s most protracted internal disputes.
Justice Mohammed Umar struck out the case after it was established that Anyanwu’s tenure as PDP National Secretary had expired in December 2025, making the suit academic and no longer justiciable.
The suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/254/2025, was instituted against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and a former Acting National Chairman of the PDP, Umar Damagun. Anyanwu had asked the court to restrain INEC from recognising any PDP correspondence not signed by him and to stop Damagun from forwarding party documents without his countersignature.
However, the matter expanded significantly after the court joined additional parties, including the PDP itself, Sunday Udeh-Okoye, the party’s National Vice Chairman (South-East) Dr Ali Odela, and Deputy National Secretary Setonji Koshoedo.
When the case came up for hearing, counsel to Anyanwu informed the court that his client’s tenure had elapsed and that events had overtaken the suit. He therefore applied to withdraw the matter in the interest of justice and judicial economy.
Lawyers representing INEC and the other defendants opposed a simple withdrawal, arguing that the suit should never have been filed and urging the court to dismiss it outright with costs of N1 million each.
Justice Umar, after listening to all parties, dismissed the suit but declined to award costs.
“The situation made it so. The delay is not on any of the parties,” the judge ruled, adding that each party should bear its own costs.
The legal battle over the PDP National Secretary position began after Anyanwu vacated the office to contest the 2023 Imo State governorship election, which he lost. His attempt to return to the position triggered deep internal divisions, with Sunday Udeh-Okoye also laying claim to the office.
In December 2024, the Court of Appeal affirmed a Federal High Court judgment that removed Anyanwu and recognised Udeh-Okoye. That decision was later overturned by the Supreme Court in March 2025, which reinstated Anyanwu.
Despite the apex court’s ruling, factional disputes continued within the PDP, prompting Anyanwu to file the fresh Abuja suit in a bid to enforce his position.
With the court’s dismissal of the case on grounds of elapsed tenure, the long-running judicial chapter of the PDP secretaryship crisis has now effectively closed.
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