Members of the Peoples Democratic Party, under the eagis of PDP Survival Movement (PDPSM) have accused some leaders of the party of twisting the recent Supreme Court judgment to polarise the party.
Addressing a press conference on the state of the party in Abuja on Tuesday, Okoh Bartholomew, President of the Movement, said it has become necessary to address the misconception surrounding the suspension of Senator Samuel Anyanwu and Kamaldeen Ajibade.
Bartholomew said as people committed to the survival of PDP and democracy in Nigeria, ‘We cannot remain silent while judicial proceedings are twisted for factional propaganda and we certainly cannot allow political opportunists to mislead party faithful and Nigerians through selective interpretation of court processes.’
Bartholomew flanked by other members of the movement said some people have resorted to propaganda, saying, ‘Our position today is simple: facts must prevail over propaganda, constitutional order must prevail over political manipulation, and the rule of law must remain superior to factional interests.’
The PDP Survival Movement said it has found it necessary to address the nation because of the growing wave of ‘misinformation, half-truths, and politically motivated distortions being circulated against Senator Samuel N. Anyanwu and the leadership structure of our great party.
‘We cannot fold our arms while deliberate falsehoods are dressed up as legal facts.’
PDPSM also said after carefully reviewing the Certified True Copies (CTC) of the proceedings from the Federal High Court, the Court of Appeal, and the Supreme Court. The facts are straightforward, ‘Senator Samuel N. Anyanwu. was not a party to the specific cross-appeal being referenced by those pushing this propaganda.
‘His name did not appear in the matter now being mischievously interpreted to mislead party members. We challenge anyone to produce a CTC where Senator Samuel N. Anyanwu, name was specific mentioned in the judgement.
‘The law is settled: no court can make binding pronouncements against an individual who was not a party before it in the specific proceedings being determined. You cannot bind a man to a judgment in a suit where he was not a party. The attempt to link his name to this case is a legal hallucination a legal intended to create a crisis where none exists.’
Referring to the suspension, the movement said ‘assuming, though not conceding, that a ‘suspension’ occurred, it is a matter of record contained in the very document being relied upon and the PDP Constitution that such an action was limited to 30 days only by those now pushing exaggerated political consequences.
‘During this 30-day window, Senator Anyanwu took no executive decisions that could have legally or administratively truncated the Abuja Convention, while the clock on the purported suspension ran out.’
Bartholomew also said no court nullified the convention discussions, adding that ‘No judicial order extinguished the authority of the subsisting NWC structure aligned with Senator Anyanwu. What then is the constitutional basis for the propaganda currently being circulated?’ He asked.