Nigeria, March 21 -- The Supreme Court has overturned the decisions of the Court of Appeal and the Federal High Court sacking Samuel Anyanwu as the National Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The verdict, delivered on Friday by a five-member panel of the Supreme Court, settled the protracted leadership tussle between Mr Anyanwu and Sunday Ude-Okoye, a dispute that had deepened divisions within the political party.

In the lead judgement read by a member of the panel, Jamilu Tukur, the Supreme Court held that matters relating to the leadership or membership of a political party fall strictly within the party's internal affairs and should not be the business of the court.

"The exceptional circumstances that would have given ...