- Only PDP NEC can suspend me, Ayu boasts
- I’m not aware of Ayu’s suspension – Benue PDP chairman
The crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) got worsened yesterday as a High Court, sitting in Makurdi, Benue State, restrained Dr. Iyorchia Ayu from parading himself as the national chairman of the party.
This followed an ex-parte application filed by a chieftain of the PDP, Comrade Terhide Utaan, who sought an interim injunction restraining Ayu from further parading himself as the national chairman of the party.
In suit number MHC/85/ 2023 and motion number MHC/633M/2023 between Comrade Utaan and Senator Iyorchia Ayu and the PDP as respondents, before Justice W. I. Kpochi, the plaintiff sought an order of interim injunction, restraining 1st defendant, Dr. Ayu from further parading himself as the national chairman of the PDP, having lost membership of the party, pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice already filed.
The application was supported by a 15-paragraph affidavit, which annexed three exhibits as A1, A2 and B.
The exhibits are the applicant’s membership cards of the 2nd defendant (PDP), receipts for payment of dues, and the vote of no confidence passed on the first defendant (Ayu) by his Igyorov council ward in Gboko local government.
Justice Kpochi adjourned the case to April 14, 2023, for further hearing.
The court order followed Ayu’s suspension by his ward at the weekend for allegedly engaging in anti-party activities.
However, Ayu described his suspension as a nullity, just as he argued that only the National Executive Committee (NEC) could carry out such action.
Ayu claimed that some members of the executive committee of his ward’s chapter of the party were teleguided by those he called political gamblers in Makurdi to cause mischief.
In a statement released by his Special Adviser on Media and Communications, Simon Imobo-Tswam, he said: “Article 57(7) of the PDP Constitution as amended in 2017 expressly prohibits any organ of the party or executive committee of the party at the Ward or State level from taking any disciplinary measure against any member of the party’s National Executive Committee.”
A resolution passed at the end of the meeting of executives of the party at the Ward level and read by its Secretary of Igyorov, Mr. Banger Dooyum, reads: “The PDP Executive Committee of Igyorov council ward of Gboko local government area in Benue state has passed a vote of no confidence on the PDP National Chairman, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, and suspended him from the party.”
Mr. Dooyum, while reading the resolution of the ward Exco, said: “He (Ayu) was involved in anti-party activities, making the PDP lose at his ward and local government along with his allies, who also didn’t vote at the governorship election.”
Ayu was also accused of not paying his yearly dues as enshrined by the party’s constitution.
Worried by the development, a member of the Board of Trustees of the party, Chief Olabode George, called for calm and pleaded with the warring factions not to do anything that will exterminate the party.
According to him, Ayu made mistakes for not abiding by his promise of stepping down if a northerner emerged as the presidential candidate of the party, and so, caused the party to lose the presidential election.
He, however, warned party members to use the post-election period for reconciliation and not to finally kill the party.
He said it is only the NEC that can suspend or punish Ayu or any national leader of the party, urging members in Ayu’s ward to follow due process.
Reacting to the development, Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, said the fight against Ayu, has just started.
The governor stated that it has now become unthinkable to allow any person, who was unable to deliver his political unit, ward, council, or state for the PDP during the last general elections, to preside over the party.
Wike stated this yesterday, during the inauguration of the remodeled Community Secondary School in Okoro-nu-Odo, in the Obio-Akpor Council of the state.
The governor said it would be morally offensive for Ayu to remain as the national chairman of the PDP after the catastrophic defeat of the party under his watch in his unit, ward, local government, state, and national levels.
According to him, the suspension of Ayu is the beginning of the fight to save the party.
The court order came on the trail of the denial by PDP Chairman in Benue State, Isaac Mfo, of the knowledge of Ayu’s suspension.
Following the news across the country, on Sunday that Ayu had been suspended by the executive council of PDP in Igyorov Ward, Gboko Local Council. The Guardian had sought confirmation from the state chairman, who had tersely replied that he was “not aware of any such development.”
Mfo said: “Nothing of such has come to my table, neither have I any knowledge of that (Ayu’s suspension).”
Also, chairman of PDP in Gboko Local Council, Mr. Gbangson Adekwagh, told The Guardian, yesterday: “That is what people have kept asking me for the past few hours. But I don’t know where that news emanated from.”
PDP chairman in Igyorov Ward, Philips Karshi, in a viral video, yesterday, read from a prepared script the suspension of Ayu from the party.
Karshi cited, among other sins of the PDP helmsman, anti-party activities, and his purported failure to vote during the last general elections.
The whole matter is coming on the heels of the National Working Committee (NWC) of PDP’s referral of Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, to the disciplinary committee of the party.
Ortom, who is one of the five aggrieved PDP governors that protested the emergence of Atiku Abubakar as the party’s presidential candidate, is engaged in a cold war with Ayu.
The Guardian
