A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Akinloye Oyeniyi has reacted to the removal of national chairman of the party, Iyorchia Ayu.
Oyeniyi asserted that the people behind the suspension Ayu followed the same script that was used to remove former chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole.
According to Oyeniyi, just like Oshiomhole was sanctioned by the APC executive committee at his ward in Edo State with a High Court in the Federal Capital Territory subsequently ordering his suspension as the APC national chairman, the same is happening to Ayu at the moment.
The PDP chieftain as learnt by Naija News made the assertion when he was featured during a live appearance on Friday’s edition of Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily.
According to him, in a similar manner, the PDP exco in Igyorov Ward of the Gboko Local Government Area (LGA) in Benue State suspended Ayu with immediate effect last Sunday.
He said “People who were actually playing that script were trying to follow the way Oshiomhole was removed.
“But PDP and APC don’t operate the same constitution. According to the PDP constitution, it would have to be the National Executive Committee (NEC) that will deal with all NEC members, including suspension, not ward level, even the state or zonal [exco].
“That was why the NWC under Ayu then said, ‘The chairman goes nowhere.’ But when the issue is now in court, whether the court order is right or wrong, inasmuch as it’s an order from the court, you have to obey first.”
Speaking further Oyeniyi explained that the PDP is a party that obeys court orders and constituted authority, so there was nothing the party could do other than comply with the court order.
He advanced that the agitation of those who were aggrieved because the party abandoned its zoning principle to nominate Atiku Abubakar as the presidential candidate is gradually taking shape.
“But there are some of us who were attacked – not physically – because we stood our ground that we were going to work for the party. For some of us, it’s not as if we had all our expectations met because the party position is supreme.
“But there are some people in the same party with whom we were supposed to be working for the same [candidate] and were working against us openly on election day.
“Then a month later, they are now saying, ‘Whatever we have done, you should overlook it and come back together again.’ Some of us are now aggrieved. We that obeyed the party directive are now aggrieved,” he added.
