By Eric Elezuo

The National Working Committee (NWC) of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has suspended its Acting National Chairman, Amb Illiya Umar Damagum and the National Secretary, Senator Samuel Anyanwu, for anti-party activities.

The party revealed its decision to suspend the duo in a press statement signed by the National Publicity Secretary, Hon. Debo Ologunagba, and made available to The Boss Newspaper.

The statement noted that the Acting National Chairman, who has been facing legitimacy crisis, and his Secretary, were found culpable with regard to the “letter addressed by them to the Court of Appeal in Appeal No: CA/PH/307/2024 against the Party’s position in the case involving the 27 former members of the Rivers State House of Assembly who vacated their seats upon decamping from the PDP to the All Progressives Congress (APC).”

While condemning the act, the party invoked Sections 57, 58 and 59 of the PDP Constitution, and suspended the officers, referring them to the National Disciplinary Committee.

The two officers are therefore, barred from attending the NWC’s meetings, activities and programmes, according to the statement.

Read the statement in full:

The National Working Committee (NWC) of the PDP has extensively considered the series of complaints raised against the Acting National Chairman, Amb. Illiya Damagum and National Secretary, Sen. Samuel Anyanwu particularly with regard to the letter addressed by them to the Court of Appeal in Appeal No:CA/PH/307/2024 against the Party’s position in the case involving the 27 former members of the Rivers State House of Assembly who vacated their seats upon decamping from the PDP to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The NWC condemned this anti-party activity of the Acting National Chairman and the National Secretary which is in gross violation of the provisions of the PDP Constitution (as amended in 2017) and their Oath of Office.

Consequently, the NWC, pursuant to Sections 57, 58 and 59 of the PDP Constitution, has suspended Amb. Illiya Damagum and Sen. Samuel Anyanwu as Acting National Chairman and National Secretary of the Party respectively and referred them to the National Disciplinary Committee for further action.

In the meantime, the two officials are suspended from all meetings, activities and programs of the NWC pending the conclusion of investigation by the National Disciplinary Committee.

The Court of Appeal has upheld the judgment of the Federal High Court, affirming Martins Amaehwule as the rightful Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly.

Recall that the Governor of Rivers State, Siminalayi Fubara, had challenged the judgement of Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court Abuja, which affirmed Amaehwule’s leadership.

This ruling is a victory for the camp of former Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike, who has been at odds with Governor Fubara.

Governor Fubara has also been ordered to re-present the 2024 budget to the Amaehwule-led House of Assembly.

Covenant University has once again secured the top spot in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2025.

The ranking, which evaluates universities across various performance metrics, placed the Ota-based institution ahead of other leading Nigerian universities, reaffirming its position as a leader in higher education.

The rankings, which surveyed 1,907 universities across 108 countries, assessed the institutions based on 18 performance indicators across five key areas: teaching, research environment, research quality, industry, and international outlook.

CU emerged as Nigeria’s best, outperforming Ahmadu Bello University, Landmark University, and the University of Ibadan, which ranked second, third, and fourth respectively.

The 2025 list also reflected a shift in the global higher education landscape, with more than 134 million citations from 16.5 million research publications analyzed and survey responses from over 68,000 scholars collected globally.

Other Nigerian universities making the top ten include the University of Lagos, Bayero University, Federal University of Technology, Akure, Federal University of Technology, Minna, University of Benin, and University of Ilorin also earned a spot in the top tier, securing 10th place.

See the full list