Our suspension greatest joke of the century —Oyinlola, Baraje, others The crisis in the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, took a new twist Monday as the national leadership slammed an indefinite suspension on its former National Secretary, Olagunsoye Oyinlola and three other leaders of the New Peoples Democratic Party, nDPD, and ordered their investigation, for alleged anti-party activities. The others whose suspension was announced by the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Olisa Metuh at a press conference in Abuja, were a former acting National Chairman of the party, Kawu Baraje, a former Deputy National Chairman, Sam Sam Jaja and a former senator and ambassador from Jigawa State, Ibrahim Kazaure. Mr. Baraje is the National Chairman of the nPDP, while Mr. Jaja is his deputy and Mr. Oyinlola, the National Secretary. But Mr. Baraje and his colleagues have, through their faction, described their suspension as the greatest joke of the century, adding that it was not only an abuse of the party constitution, but also the court process, which reinstated Mr. Oyinlola as National Secretary. While announcing the decision of the party to suspend the four persons, Mr. Metuh said preliminary hearings conducted in line with the PDP Constitution showed that they had breached Section 58 (1) (b) , (g), (h) and (i) of the document. Section 58 (1) says, “Subject to the provision of this constitution, the party shall have power to discipline any member who (b) commits any breach of the party’s constitution and or manifesto; (g) engages in disorderly conduct at meetings or rallies or at any party function; (h) 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; (i) engages in unauthorised publicity of disputes within the party or create a parallel party organ at any level. The PDP spokesperson added that they are to be referred to the party’s National Disciplinary Committee, NDC, inaugurated two weeks ago by the National Chairman, Bamanga Tukur, for further investigation. The Committee is headed by Second Republic Transport Minister, Umaru Dikko, a personal friend of Mr. Tukur. He described the suspended persons as the pillars behind the formation of the nPDP, also called Kawu Baraje faction, and warned members of the ruling party across the country to avoid any dealings with them. The action of the party is believed to be a move at preventing Mr. Oyinlola’s reinstatement as National Secretary as ordered by the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja, last Thursday. He was sacked from the position by the Federal High Court, Abuja last January 11. He, however, approached the Court of Appeal, which delivered judgement last week. Prior to the announcement of the suspension order on Monday, security had been beefed up around the party’s national secretariat in Wuse Zone 5, Abuja, allegedly to stop Mr. Oyinlola from resuming as secretary. Mr. Oyinlola, a former governor of Osun State, is the National Secretary of the nPDP, which was floated by a former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, seven governors and some members of the National Assembly, elected on the platform of the PDP. The governors are Sule Lamido (Jigawa), Musa Kwankwaso (Kano), Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto), Murtala Nyako (Adamawa) , Chibuike Amaechi (Rivers) and Abdulfatah Ahmed (Kwara). Reacting to the suspension, the faction in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Chukwuemeka Eze, said it was the greatest joke of the century, adding that Mr. Tukur and the NWC members had exposed themselves as champions of undemocratic acts and greatest enemies of the party. In September, few days after the birth of the Baraje faction, Mr. Oyinlola and 12 members of the PDP, who attended a rally he organised in his home town, Okuku in Osun State, were suspended by the state chapter of the party. It was not clear why the seven governors belonging to the splinter group, also called G7 Governors and its other senior members of the Baraje faction, were not suspended. -PREMIUM TIMES
Posted on: Tue, 12 Nov 2013 12:55:50 +0000
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