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, seeking judicial recognition as the party’s scribe.
Justice Mohammed Umar dismissed the suit after noting that Anyanwu’s tenure as national secretary had expired in December 2025, thereby rendering the case overtaken by events.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Anyanwu, in the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/254/2025, had sued the Independent National Electoral Commission and Umar Damagun, former acting National Chairman of the PDP, as first and second defendants.
In an ex parte motion dated and filed on February 13, 2025, by his counsel, Ken Njemanze, Anyanwu sought interim injunctions restraining INEC from accepting or acting on any correspondence from the PDP not signed by him, pending the determination of a motion on notice.
He also asked the court to restrain Damagun from dispatching to INEC any PDP correspondence not countersigned by him.
On February 28, 2025, the court joined the PDP and Sunday Udeh-Okoye as third and fourth defendants, respectively.
Justice Umar also joined Dr Ali Odela, said to be the party’s National Vice Chairman for the South East, and Mr Setonji Koshoedo, the Deputy National Secretary, as fifth and sixth defendants.
When the matter was called, U.C. Njemanze-Aku, who appeared for Anyanwu, informed the court that his client’s tenure had expired in December 2025.
He said it would be improper to continue with a matter that had been overtaken by events.
“In the interest of justice, I apply to withdraw this matter to save the time of the court,” he said.
Responding, counsel to INEC, Akintayo Balogun, argued that the suit ought not to have been instituted and urged the court to dismiss it with costs, requesting N1 million. Counsel to Damagun, M.O. Akpan, aligned with the submission, while Ugochukwu Okanu, representing the fourth defendant, also sought an award of N1 million in costs.
Counsel to the sixth defendant, J.A. Musa, did not oppose the withdrawal but similarly asked for costs in the sum of N1 million.
However, Njemanze-Aku objected to the requests for costs, insisting that the withdrawal was due to circumstances beyond the plaintiff’s control.
“We owe a duty to the court, and to avoid wasting its time, we decided to withdraw the case,” he said, urging the court to allow parties to bear their own costs.
After hearing the arguments, Justice Umar dismissed the suit without awarding costs.
“Since you have joined issues, I am going to dismiss this matter. The matter is hereby dismissed,” the judge ruled.
On the issue of costs, he added, “The delay is not on any of the parties. The situation made it so. For this reason, I award no cost.”
The dispute over the PDP national secretary position began when Anyanwu vacated the office to contest the 2023 Imo governorship election, which he lost.
His subsequent attempt to reclaim the position triggered internal party tensions, with Udeh-Okoye emerging as a rival claimant.
On December 20, 2024, the Court of Appeal sitting in Enugu upheld an earlier decision of the Federal High Court that removed Anyanwu and affirmed Udeh-Okoye as the authentic national secretary. Anyanwu appealed to the Supreme Court and sought a stay of execution.
In March 2025, the Supreme Court overturned the decisions of the lower courts, sacking Anyanwu as PDP national secretary.
Despite the ruling, leadership disputes persisted within the party’s national secretariat.
In a bid to resolve the lingering uncertainty, Anyanwu filed a fresh suit at the Federal High Court in Abuja seeking enforcement of his claims.
In November 2025, Justice Umar granted his application to amend the originating summons but awarded N30,000 in costs to each of the defendants and adjourned the matter to January 20 for hearing.