ENUGU, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA)- Former Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose and Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State, have tackled the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), for suspending them.
The party had on Thursday announced the suspension of former Governor Fayose; former president of the Senate, Pius Anyim; Prof Dennis Ityavyar and Aslam Aliyu.
Also, the PDP referred Ortom to the National Disciplinary Committee over his reported involvement in anti-party activities.
The decision to suspend them was reached after an extensive review of the affairs of the party, pursuant to the provisions of the PDP Constitution (as amended in 2017).
According to the PDP, the suspension by Senator Iyorchia Ayu-led National Working Committee, took effect on Thursday.
This was disclosed in a statement signed by the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Debo Ologunagba.
“The PDP urges all leaders, critical stakeholders and teeming members of our party across the country to remain united and focused at this critical time,” the statement added.
Reacting, Fayose, through his media aide, Lere Olayinka, described the suspension as “the last kick of a dead horse.”
In a statement titled, “My suspension is Ayu’s last kick of a dead horse – Fayose,” the former governor said, “Ayu and his cohorts are only entertaining themselves with the purported suspension as their latest comedy skit.”
Fayose said he and others who stood by the party when Ayu and his cohorts left it to die would rescue the PDP and give life back in due course.
“The purported suspension will have no leg to stand,” he added.
Recall that Fayose had, earlier this month, in an interview with Arise TV, attacked his party and Ayu, following the defeat of the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, in the 25 February presidential election.
He said, “This Ayu was the one who led Atiku to the gutters. They took him to the gutters. You see when a man cannot come out. At 80, what does he want to do after that?”
Fayose while reacting to a video showing members of a Civil Society Organisation who protested against the outcome of the election in Abuja, he said, “Let me first fault the people I saw here today, that are calling themselves civil society. No, they are PDP members,” he said.
Also reacting, Governor Ortom said the PDP National Working Committee against him was acting in contempt of a subsisting Court Order by referring him to the disciplinary committee of the party for alleged anti-party activities.
Orton further stated that it was contemptuous of the party’s leadership to disregard the Court Order which barred the party or any organ of the party from issuing any disciplinary measure against him.
This was contained in a statement by Ortom’s Chief Press Secretary, Nathaniel Ikyur, on Thursday.
The statement reads, “I think the national leadership of our great party is losing its sense of direction. Instead of the leadership to sit back and think of ways of how to rebuild the party from the ruins of the defeat from the just concluded elections, they are going about chasing imaginary shadows.
“In any case, the first person the party should refer to the disciplinary committee should be the national chairman of the party, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu. The national chairman lost his polling unit, lost his ward, local government, and even the state,” Ikyur said.