Our Expulsion From PDP Laughable..Amaechi's Loyalists

Loyalists of Rivers State Governor Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi and functionaries of the state government have dismissed their expulsion from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Rivers PDP chairman Felix Obuah on Monday announced the expulsion of 18 members, most of them officials of the state government and a former Deputy national chairman of the party for failing to appear before a performance-assessment panel to defend their stewardship. Amaechi himself is currently on suspension by the party.

Those expelled include: Secretary to the State Government (SSG), George Feyii; the Chief of Staff, Chief Tony Okocha; a former Deputy National Chairman, Dr. Sam Sam-Jaja; and the Administrator of the Greater Port Harcourt City Development Authority (GPHCDA), Mrs. Aleruchi Cookey-Gam.

The expelled commissioners are Victor Giadom (Works), Augustine Wokocha (Power), Worgu Boms (Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice), Joe Poroma (Social Welfare and Rehabilitation), Ezemonye Ezekiel Amadi (Lands and Survey), Fred Igwe (Sports), Emmanuel Chinda (Agriculture), Joeba West (Women Affairs), Patricia Simon Hart (Water Resources and Rural Development), Okey Amadi (Energy), Charles Okaye (Chieftaincy Affairs), Dr. Nnabuihe Imegwu (Culture and Tourism), Ibim Semenitari (Information and Communications) and Samuel Eyiba (Local Government).

Giadom, said only the National Working Committee (NWC) of the PDP could expel public officers.

He said Obuah and his associates did not understand the importance of party politics.

“They need to go back and understand that the calibre of people they claimed to have expelled from the PDP will enable PDP succeed in this state.

“The constitution is clear on public officers. It is only the National Executive Council (NEC) of the party that can decide my fate.

“I will not even believe what they have done. I will sleep well. I will not even remember that they have done anything, because I know it will not see the light of the day.

“You do not expect something that is opposite the law to survive. Our expulsion will start and end at Aba Road (Rivers PDP secretariat in Port Harcourt).

A PDP chieftain, Adokiye Oruwari, who is a lawyer said the leadership of the ruling party had not been communicating with its members.

Oruwari noted that the expelled eminent persons could have either been reached by phone or in writing.

A former member of the House of Representatives, Lasbry Amadi, urged President Goodluck Jonathan to quickly intervene in the deepening crisis.

Amadi said: “I look at a lot of things happening in this party (PDP) as arrant nonsense. One can always say that this is an acculturation. Something that you borrow and begin to learn. A culture where things are said, actions are taken, without people thinking about the imminent result.

“It is a very big surprise. It is something that is completely condemnable. The PDP had a serious issue bigger than this, especially when I was in the National Assembly. What I am seeing today is completely different.

“A situation where this Rivers state continues to give the highest vote to the PDP and today, the party is treating the state in this manner. I do not really know whose interest anybody is serving.

Counsel to Amaechi and the 27 members of the House of Assembly loyal to him (Amaechi) in the on-going political legal battles, Emenike Ebete, dismissed the expulsion as unconstitutional, null and void.

Ebete told our reporter in an exclusive interview in Port Harcourt that the case between Amaechi and the Evaluation and Performance committee is before a state High court in Port Harcourt presided over by Justice Silverlyn Iragunuma , prior to the announcement of the purported expulsion and suspension of the members.

He said the court had already granted Amaechi the leave sought to serve all processes of his ex parte application on the PDP national secretariat by registered post while that of the state PDP should be served by pasting.

Ebete explained that the suit before Justice Iragunuma, (a vacation court), was the same suit in which the governor, members of the National Assembly from the state, 27 members of the state Assembly, and Council chairmen are seeking an injunction to stop the Evaluation committee from assessing them.

Justice Godspower Aguma on August 21, dismissed the application based on the preliminary objection by the defendants that the court lacks jurisdiction to interfere in the internal affairs of the party.

Aguma held that “once a public officer is elected and sworn the oath of office, he/she no longer represents the interests of the party or any platform in which he was elected but the people, and as a result it becomes the responsibility of the people to evaluate his/her performances and not the party.”

The PDP, the nation learnt, has appealed the decision of the court, while Amaechi refilled the suit before the vacation court.

He expressed the hope that when the suit is heard, the errors would be corrected and the expulsion and suspension would be set aside, and those affected re-integrated.

“Assuming that they people they purported to have expelled and suspended actually did contravene the party constitution, does the evaluation committee have the right to carry out any actions against these persons?

Deputy Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly Leyii Kwanee called for the intervention of the party’s national secretariat in the expulsion of the 18 members. Kwanee said this became imperative owing to the manner the party is being destroyed in the state.

The deputy speaker said “what is happening in the state is a grand design by the opposition party, which has used its top notchers to infiltrate the PDP and incapacitate it.”

To buttress his point, he cited instances of Dr.Abiye Sekibo and Jerry Needam who hitherto were in Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and were strong critics of PDP but now deciding and speaking for the PDP