House leadership tussle: PDP suspends 7 Reps, carpets Gbajabiamila

…Demands retraction within 24 hours

…NWC, BoT stand by party decision

Tunde Opalana, Abuja

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the conclusion of its National Working Committee (NWC) meeting on Friday suspended seven members of the party in the House of Representatives over anti-party activities and act of insubordination.

The suspended House members are Hon. Ndudi Elumelu, Hon. Wole Oke, Hon. Lynda Ikpeazu, Hon. Anayo Edwin, Hon. Gideon Gwadi, Hon. Toby Okechukwu and Hon. Adekoya Abdul-Majid.

They were suspended for a period of one month after they were found culpable of working against the interest on the party in roles they played in issues surrounding the appointment of Minority Leadership of the House of Representatives.

The party noted the roles played by the under-listed members which resulted in the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, reading another list for Minority Leadership of the House other than the list submitted to him by our party, the PDP.

Reading the resolution of the National Working Committee to journalists, party’s spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, said: “After preliminary examination by the NWC, it was evident that the roles played by the above mentioned members, bordered on indiscipline, insubordination and disobedience of party directives contrary to Section 58 (1)(b)(c)(f)(h) of the PDP Constitution (as amended in 2017), which provides that:

“Subject to the provision of this Constitution, the Party shall have power to discipline any member who says or does anything likely to bring the party into disrepute, hatred or contempt; disobeys or neglects to carry out lawful directives of the party or any organ or officer of the party;

engages in anti-party activities; or engages in any conduct likely to cause disaffection among members of the party or is likely to disrupt the peaceful, lawful and efficient conduct of the business of the party”.

“Consequent upon this, the above mentioned members of our party are hereby suspended for one month and this matter is hereby referred to the National Disciplinary Committee of our party, in keeping with Section 57(3) of the PDP Constitution.”

Recall that the party on Thursday summoned the seven members to appear before it at the PDP national secretariat, Abuja at 10.00am on Friday but none of the affected members responded to the summon.

However, Hon. Elumelu on behalf of other regretted not appearing before the party while pleading to be considered for another chance to appear next week.

Elumelu in a letter signed by his Personal Assistant, Sam Audu, said the invitation letter by the party came at a time the members were out of Abuja.

“I am to Inform you that the House Minority Leader. Hon. Ndudt Elumelu and other Members invited are currently out of Abuja. Notwithstanding, I have notified him and Other Members about the letter of invitations and they requested that l notify you about their absence from Abuja,” said the letter by his Elumelu’s aide.

Hon. Elumelu and other members invited regretted any inconvenience caused by their absence not to attend the meeting with NWC

They therefore, requested that the meeting should be rescheduled for either Thursday July 11 at 1.30pm or Friday July 12 at 4:00 pm.

The PDP on the other hand slammed the Speaker, House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, for what it described as unlawful foisting of minority leaders on the House of Representatives and lawless threat on Hon Kingsley Chinda.

The party expressed shock and dismay on how Gbajabiamila, in open chamber, jettisoned all parliamentary procedure to make hate statement, inciting comment and direct threats to the bona fide Leader of the Minority in the House, Hon Kingsley Chinda, for no justifiable reason.

“Hon. Gbajabiamila, in open chamber, exhibited personal hostility, with threats that Hon. Chinda will ‘regret’ taking his rightful seat as the bona fide Leader of the Minority in the House.

“This vicious outburst by Hon. Gbajabiamila is a direct threat and affront to our democratic order, the rights of the minority members in the House of Representatives, the people of Obio/Akpo Federal Constituency and sensibility of millions of members of the PDP who nominated Hon. Chinda as minority leader.

“The PDP, in the strongest terms, condemns this outburst and demands that the Speaker retracts his inciting threats against Hon. Chinda within the next 24 hours. The PDP also invites the Police and the Department of State Services (DSS) to summon Gbajabiamila to explain the intents of his threats.

“Our party further invites Nigerians to hold Hon. Gbajabiamila directly responsible should any harm suddenly come to Hon. Chinda, any member of his family or any member of the PDP in the House of Representatives.

“It is indeed unfortunate and completely condemnable that Hon. Gbajabiamila is turning the chamber of the House of Representatives into a theatre of avoidable conflicts just because of his vested interest in the affairs of the opposition,” said the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, in a statement Friday.

PDP National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus said all the organs of the party are united after consultation to affirm that Hon. Chinda is PDP’s choice minority leader.

He said both the National Working Committee (NWC) and the Board of Trustees (BoT) met earlier on Friday to reaffirm that the party is one and united on the decision to suspend the erring members.

Secondus said: “This (Friday) afternoon, members of the NWC and Chairman of BoT representing other members of BoT met and reaffirmed that the party is one, united and working hard to recover our mandate at the courts.

“And on the issue of the leadership of the House of Representatives, the minority leadership, we want to reiterate that the party and the BoT is united, that in consultation with members of PDP and other minority parties, that Hon. Kingsley Chinda is our minority leader and all the other positions as we have communicated to the Speaker House of Representatives.