Governor Faults Action Of PDP suspending Amaechi

CITING disobedience and the need to ensure discipline in the party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Monday suspended embattled Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State from the party.

But in a swift reaction, Amaechi said that his purported suspension was an act of political witch-hunting.

Meanwhile, criticisms on Monday continued to trail last Friday’s election to the chair of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) in which Governor Amaechi and his Plateau State counterpart, Jonah David Jang, are claiming to have won.

The PDP’s National Working Committee (NWC), which took the decision after an emergency meeting in Abuja on Monday, anchored Amaechi’s suspension on a petition it received from the PDP Rivers Executive Committee against the governor regarding allegation of disobedience to the state chapter of the party.

A statement issued by the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, pointed out that the matter had been referred to the party’s disciplinary committee for further investigation and action.

The party has equally set up an 11-member committee headed by Joe Gadzama (SAN) to investigate the petition that led to Amaechi’s suspension.

The committee is also “to handle all matters in connection with the NWC decision suspending the governor.”

Other members of the committee include Kwon Victor, Inalegwu Onche, Friday N. Nwosu, Udorji Amedu, Ola Kukoyi, Wakili Mohammed, Yusuf Jangwe, Bola Doherty, Tanimu Adamson and Anicho Okoro who is to serve as the secretary of the committee.

The statement issued after the NWC meeting reads: “The National Working Committee at its emergency meeting on Monday, May 27, 2013 considered the petition submitted by the PDP Rivers Executive Committee against Governor Amaechi for violating Articles 58 1 (b), (c), (h) and (m) of the PDP’s constitution following his refusal to obey the lawful directive of the Rivers State Executive Committee to rescind his decision dissolving the elected Council of Obiokpor Local Council of Rivers State.

“The National Working Committee after preliminary hearing, in exercise of the powers conferred by Articles 57 (3), 59 (3), 59 (5) and 29 (2b), hereby suspends Governor Rotimi Amaechi as a member of the PDP and refers the matter to the appropriate disciplinary committee of the party.

“This is in furtherance of the determination of the leadership of the party to enforce discipline at all levels within the party.”

Explaining the action taken by the party at a briefing, Metuh said that the decision was taken to instil discipline in the party and make it stronger.

He also said that President Goodluck Jonathan was not aware of the action taken against Amaechi because the NWC was constitutionally empowered to handle the matter.

Amaechi said it was ridiculous for the party to suspend him on the grounds that he has refused to reinstate the suspended Obio-Akpor Local Council chairman, Timothy Nsirim and 17 councillors, whereas it was the State House of Assembly that removed the chairman and others from office.

He stated this while addressing a cross-section of Rivers State youths as part of evidence to mark his 48th birthday at the Government House, Port Harcourt, on Monday.

He explained that prior to the suspension, he was not invited or given a fair hearing on the matter which was strictly a legislative function.

“There was no fair hearing. I was not invited. What was the reason for suspending me: that I have refused to reinstate Obio-Akpor council. Who suspended Obio-Akpor council? Who has power to reinstate Obio Akpor council chiefs? So, you see political witch-hunting. It is so ridiculous. My party must rise above political witch-hunting. The governor did not suspend Obio-Akpor council. I hope you know. I have powers. My power is to dissolve. I can get up now and dissolve Obio-Akpor council and remit it to House of Assembly. I have never done that yet”, he said.

According to him, the lawmakers had reckoned that allowing the council chairman and the councilors to remain in office while investigation was ongoing might result in vital evidence against them being compromised. He stressed that the party by calling for reinstatement of the suspended council officials under investigation appeared to be tolerating corruption.

Amaechi described the suspension as strictly the business of the House of Assembly and wondered why the PDP NWC should victimise him. He also pointed out that the parties involved in the conflict were already in court and wondered what the party expects of him.

Relatedly, the presidential candidate of the defunct National Republican Party (NRC), Alhaji Bashir Tofa, has beckoned on Amaechi to dump the PDP and seek refuge in the APC.

In a statement by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Emma Eneukwu, he wondered how a political party that lays claim to democratic usages could rise to suspend one of its own for winning an election.

The All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) on Monday described Amaechi’s suspension as an affront to the ideals of democracy.

The party noted: “This action rubbishes PDP’s claim to any democratic credential, as it has clearly shown that it practises despotism and the tyranny of a cabal.

“We worry at this dangerous development and ask Nigerians to take due notice of this charade and place it in perspective in view of the forthcoming 2015 general elections. We ask? What is the crime of Chief Amaechi? We proffer an answer: he won election as Chairman of the NGF by 19 votes to 16 scored by his closest challenger.

“Even though we respect the internal dimension of the recent decision of the PDP, but as committed democrats, we are constrained to react in view of its wider implication in our nation’s democratic practice. We worry at this dangerous development and ask Nigerians to take due notice of this charade and place it in perspective in view of the forthcoming 2015 general elections.”

In a statement made available to The Guardian, Tofa is full of prayers that the latest crises rocking the PDP could lead to its disintegration.

Former Minister of Transport and a member of Board of Trustees (BoT) of the PDP, Chief Ebenezer Babatope, has lauded Amaechi’s suspension.

Babatope told The Guardian on Monday that the PDP has done well by suspending Amaechi from the party.

He added: “I have been Amaechi’s fan because I have always been fascinated by his brilliance. Since it is now clear that opposition parties are now fighting his cause with the view to attacking our party and weakening our party’s strength, the PDP has no choice than to suspend him and picking the gauntlet of the opposition parties.”

Lagos State House of Assembly also condemned the face-off between Governor Amaechi and a faction of the NGF as undemocratic and an embarrassment to the country.

The House in a statement described the governor’s behaviour in the Jang-led faction as one that portrayed them as “political neophytes and enemies of democracy in Nigeria given their roles in last Friday’s NGF election.”

Besides, the lawmakers have urged Amaechi not to hesitate in seeking redress from a law court, having described his suspension from the ruling party on Monday “as a demonstration of double standard and a display of the reactionary tendency inherent in the PDP.”

The statement signed by the Chairman, House Committee on Information, Strategy, Security and Publicity, Segun Olulade, said the governors who made pronouncement against the return of Amaechi as NGF’s helmsman acted in subversion of the ideals of democracy.

Also, a Lagos-based human rights activist, Bamidele Aturu, on Monday called for the scrapping of the NGF just as the Edo State House of Assembly Majority Leader, Philip Shaibu, has accused the Presidency of meddling into the governors’ affairs.

Aturu said: “In all democratic settings, it is sacrilegious to question the procedure of an election in which one took part after the result of the election, particularly when the procedure is not known to have violated the Constitution of the association or of any known democratic norm.”

He added: “All said, it is clear to me that the NGF itself, and I have said this before, is an immoral assembly that ought to be dismembered by all means necessary. It is nothing but an avenue for unnecessary waste of public funds.”

Former Lagos State Police Commissioner, Abubakar Tsav, has described the crisis that trailed the NGF’s recent election as ‘shame of a nation’.

Tsav in a statement in Makurdi, Benue State capital yesterday, also berated the PDP NWC over Amaechi’s suspension.