ABUJA: The Federal High Court in Abuja on Tuesday dismissed a suit filed by Senator Samuel Anyanwu, former factional National Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), seeking official recognition as the party’s national scribe.
Justice Mohammed Umar dismissed the suit after it emerged that Anyanwu’s tenure as PDP national secretary had expired in December 2025, thereby rendering the matter overtaken by events.
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, as first and second defendants.
In an ex parte motion dated and filed on February 13, 2025, through his counsel, Ken Njemanze, Anyanwu sought two interim injunctions.
He asked the court to restrain INEC from accepting, acting on or giving effect to any correspondence from the PDP not signed by him, pending the determination of a motion on notice.
He also sought an order restraining Damagun from dispatching any PDP correspondence to INEC not countersigned by him.
On February 28, 2025, the court joined the PDP and Mr Sunday Udeh-Okoye as third and fourth defendants. Justice Umar also joined Dr Ali Odela, PDP National Vice Chairman (South East), and Mr Setonji Koshoedo, the party’s Deputy National Secretary, as fifth and sixth defendants respectively.
When the matter was called, U.C. Njemanze-Aku, who appeared for Anyanwu, informed the court that his client’s tenure as PDP secretary had expired in December 2025. He said it would be improper to continue with a matter that had been overtaken by events and applied to withdraw the suit.
Responding, counsel to INEC, Akintayo Balogun, argued that the suit ought not to have been filed in the first place and urged the court to dismiss it with a cost of N1 million. Counsel to Damagun, M.O. Akpan, and counsel to Udeh-Okoye, Ugochukwu Okanu, aligned with the request and also sought N1 million each. Counsel to the sixth defendant, J.A. Musa, raised no objection to the withdrawal but demanded N1 million as costs.
Njemanze-Aku opposed the award of costs, arguing that the withdrawal was due to circumstances beyond the plaintiff’s control and done to avoid wasting the court’s time.
In his ruling, Justice Umar dismissed the suit but declined to award costs. He held that the delay was not caused by any party and that the situation warranted no penalty.
The PDP leadership crisis began when Anyanwu vacated the secretary position to contest the 2023 Imo governorship election, which he lost. Attempts to reclaim his seat triggered internal disputes, with Udeh-Okoye emerging as a rival claimant.
On December 20, 2024, the Court of Appeal in Enugu upheld a Federal High Court judgment removing Anyanwu and affirming Udeh-Okoye as the authentic secretary. Anyanwu appealed to the Supreme Court, which in March 2025 overturned the lower courts’ decisions and reinstated him.
Despite the apex court ruling, factional disputes persisted, prompting Anyanwu to file a fresh enforcement suit in Abuja.
In November 2025, Justice Umar allowed an amendment of the originating summons but awarded N30,000 costs to each defendant before adjourning the case to January 20, 2026
