PDP suspends Oyinlola, Baraje, others

Baraje is a former acting national chairman of the party who handed over to Bamanga Tukur as national chairman, while Dr. Sam Jaja is the immediate past deputy national chairman and Ibrahim Kazaure was the vice chairman, North West zone of the party. The four suspended yesterday are leaders of the New PDP which has […]

Baraje is a former acting national chairman of the party who handed over to Bamanga Tukur as national chairman, while Dr. Sam Jaja is the immediate past deputy national chairman and Ibrahim Kazaure was the vice chairman, North West zone of the party.
The four suspended yesterday are leaders of the New PDP which has been challenging the legality of the Alhaji Bamanga Tukur led National Working Committee (NWC) of the party. But yesterday’s action by the PDP is seen as a deliberate attempt to stop Oyinlola who on Wednesday was reinstated as secretary of the PDP by the Court  of Apeal, Abuja.
Oyinlola was elected secretary of the PDP in the 2012 national convention of the party but the Ogun State chapter of the party challenged the process through which he emerged and got a favourable judgment which sacked him from office. He was later replaced by Professor Wale Oladipo until an appeal court reinstated Oyinlola last week.
Oyinlola with the backing of leaders of the new PDP, including the Group of Seven governors have threatened to resume in office as soon as they are done with the procedure required after obtaining the court judgment and were expected to push for Oyinloloa’s reinstatement within the week.
The PDP, according to sources, weighed the legal implication of not abiding by the court order and concluded that it would be a matter of time before they would be saddled with allowing Oyinlola to continue in office even though he has clearly shown that he is more on the side of the parallel PDP hence the decision to suspend him. The inclusion of the three others according to sources was a mere smokescreen intended only to stop Oyinlola from resuming office.
National publicity secretary of the PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh who briefed newsmen on the outcome of the meeting of the NWC which met for several hours yesterday, said Oyinlola and the other three persons have breached the constitution of the party in several ways and that the party has decided to wield the big against them in order to serve as a deterrent to others.
He said the Constitution of the PDP makes it clear that anyone caught doing or saying anything capable of bringing the party into disrepute or affecting the smooth running of the party is guilty of an offence.
Metuh said the NWC found them wanting when in the recent past they walked out of the PDP convention  of the party, floated a parallel executive council of the party and have continued in ways that brought disrepute to the party.
He said the NWC had been appealing to the concerned former officials of the party to put a stop to what they were doing but that they continued and that the party had no other option but to take the step it took to maintain the commitment of all loyal party members.
“The thing about treating them with kid gloves is that it will further erode the confidence of other committed members of the party. We have been appealing to them to put a stop to the identity test, but they continued and the party is left with no other option but to maintain the commitment of all loyal members,” he stated.
On the court judgment  reinstating Oyinlola, Metuh said the PDP has not received a copy of the judgment and that all that it has been hearing in that regard have been what it has been reading on the pages of newspapers promising that the party would react when it finally gets a copy of the judgment.
Oyinlola on his part said the party did not follow the due process before taking the action and stressed that the action was taken to stop him from resuming office as national secretary of the PDP.
‘’This is part of the impunity we are protesting against. None of us has been queried or requested to give explanations for any alleged offence. And if they are reacting to the issue of the new PDP, why did they decide to leave out the serving state governors, senators and members of the House of Representatives who have been very vocal? It;s all an attempt to circumvent the ruling of the Court of Appeal. Certainly, the last has not been heard about this matter and I am sure that truth will prevail over falsehood,’’ he stated.