NEWS-FLASH! Court Confirms Barr. Steve Oruruo as Only Recognised Chairman of Enugu PDP

 

The unfolding leadership conversations within the Enugu State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) took on greater clarity on Friday, November 28, 2025, as Suit No. E/1267/2025 before an Enugu State High Court, together with the explicit provisions of the PDP Constitution, reaffirmed Barr. Steve Oruruo as the authentic State Chairman of the party. This legal background shaped the focus of a detailed press statement he delivered in Enugu, aimed at properly guiding party members, correcting misconceptions, and reinforcing constitutional order. 

Speaking to journalists, Oruruo said the briefing had become necessary “given the increasing volume of discordant narratives” circulating at different levels of the party. He emphasized that it was important to ensure that members and the public were aligned with the facts as recognized by both the court and the PDP Constitution.

He explained that the subsisting court judgment expressly reaffirmed him and Hon. Martins Onyeanwa Ugwuamadi-Eze as the substantive Chairman and Secretary of the PDP in Enugu State. The ruling, he said, is firmly anchored on Sections 45(2–4) and 47(6) of the PDP Constitution, which clearly stipulate that the deputy chairman automatically assumes office upon the resignation or removal of a state chairman.

Oruruo disclosed that the court order had been formally served on the PDP National Secretariat through the office of the former Acting National Chairman, Amb. Umar Iliya Damagum. The judgment not only affirmed his constitutional succession but also restrained the National Executive Committee from appointing any other persons into the positions of chairman or secretary. Former officeholders, he added, were directed to hand over party property and records, an instruction they complied with.

"Within the last few days, the social media has also been confronted by the news of a self-appointed PDP State Committee purportedly set up to superintend over Enugu’ s affairs. Apart from the striking illegality that accompanies the conception, it is indisputably a gathering of questionable elements, viciously and irrevocably pegged against all known principles, entrenched values and vision of the peoples Democratic Party. This is the handiwork of unscrupulous elements whose unabated nuisance has now degenerated into colossal national liability and embarrassment. When illegality postures as elastic and impunity wears the imprimatur of a national party leadership, the party faithfuls, the electorate and the people must be shielded from becoming pawns in the chessboard of political bandits."

"Has the PDP been dubiously reduced to a theatre of the absurd or a movement of incongruities? This is now a joke taken too far. I therefore enjoin all the members and teeming supporters of our great party to ignore the masquerading farce , concocted slants, street-level mendacities and chronicled propaganda of this ignominious special purpose vehicle(SPV) clandestinely but mischievouly  planted to further distabllize an already balkanized party begging for a breath of fresh air. Unfortunately, this is the handiwork of hirelings, traducers, naysayers, cynics and surrogates surreptitiously acting a distant script of the oppressors of the common man."

"I hereby implore the party faithfuls, our teeming supporters and the general public to be extremely vigilant as this is only but a glimpse of their mutating theatricals to come."

Finally, for the avoidance of any doubt, let it be known that any other person who parades himself or herself as the State Chairman and Secretary of the peoples Democratic Party, Enugu State Chapter is in contempt of the judgment of the court, and contempt proceedings will be initiated against such a person with an attendant severe consequence. This stands as a clear warning." he said.

He encouraged party members and stakeholders to remain focused, law-abiding, and committed to the values of the PDP, assuring them that clarity has been provided through both judicial interpretation and constitutional guidance, and that the party’s leadership structure remains well-defined and intact