BENUE State governor Samuel Ortom and former governor of Ekiti State, Ayo Fayose, have reacted to the disciplinary actions taken against them by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over alleged anti-party activities.
The party had announced the suspension of some of its members, including Fayose, former president of the Senate, Pius Anyim, Dennis Ityavyar, and Aslam Aliyu while referring Ortom to its disciplinary committee.
The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, who announced the decision in a statement on Thursday, March 23, said the suspension takes immediate effect.
Reacting, Ortom said that the party was acting in contempt of a subsisting Court Order.
He also said that it was contemptuous of the party’s leadership to disregard the Court Order, which barred the party or any organ of its organs from taking any disciplinary measure against him.
“I think the national leadership of our great party is losing its sense of direction,” said Ortom’s Chief Press Secretary, Nathaniel Ikyur, in a statement on Thursday.
“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.”
Ikyur also added that the first person the party should refer to the disciplinary committee should be the national chairman of the party, Iyorchia Ayu, who lost his polling unit, ward, local government, and even the state in the just concluded general elections.
Fayose, on his part, described his suspension as “the last kick of a dead horse”.
The former governor said, “Ayu and his cohorts are only entertaining themselves with the purported suspension as their latest comedy skit.”
He added that he and others who stood by the party when Ayu and his cohorts left it to die, stating that the purported suspension would not stand.
Fayose had previously attacked Ayu following the defeat of the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, in the February 25 presidential election.
In an interview with Arise TV, he accused Ayu of leading Atiku to the gutters.
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