Anti-party: PDP raises panel to probe erring members

The Peoples Democratic Party is set to open investigations into alleged anti-party activities by some of its members in the build-up to the� general elections.

The Umar Damagum-led PDP National Working Committee on Tuesday after its 571st meeting resolved to constitute a committee to review all cases of reported indiscipline and anti-party activities by some members of the party before and during the elections.

The party�s National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, in a statement issued on Wednesday explained that the decision of the NWC was in furtherance of ongoing efforts by the national leadership of the PDP �to instill discipline as well as achieve a comprehensive reconciliation in the party.�

The statement read in part, �This resolution of the NWC is pursuant to its powers under Section 29 (2) (a) and (b) and Section 31 (2) (c), (d) and (i) of the Constitution of the PDP (as amended in 2017).

�Accordingly, the NWC hereby directs that no organ of the party at any level shall henceforth commence any disciplinary action against any member of the party without due consideration and regard to the provisions of the Constitution of the PDP (as amended in 2017).

�The NWC charges all members to remain focused on the ideals of our party as a democratic organisation guided by our rules, regulations and constitution as we collectively make progress towards lasting reconciliation, discipline and unity in our party.�

A member of the working committee told The PUNCH in confidence that the gale of controversial suspensions of key party members by some state chapters had not gone down well with the acting National Chairman, Umar Damagum, since he took over from the suspended National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu.

�A party that is still nursing the ill-treatment meted out to it in the 2023 elections cannot be engulfed in reckless infighting. The PDP is a party of law and order. We have a constitution which provides for how a member can be sanctioned. In the past few weeks, we witnessed members of National Executive Committee suspended at their ward levels. This is wrong as only NEC can sanction its members,� he said.

The PUNCH had reported recently the lamentation of former Vice President, Namadi Sambo, who, at a reception for the PDP governors-elect last week, called on the NWC to wade into what he called the mindless suspension of party members by the Kaduna State chapter of the PDP.

Two days after that appeal, a former governor of Kaduna State, Ahmed Makarfi, was suspended by the ward executive of his Tudun Wada Ward of Makarfi Local Government Area.

The national leadership would later overturn the suspension, saying, �After a thorough consideration of all the issues raised by the Ward Executive, the NWC hereby declares the purported decision and action of the Tudun Wada Ward Executives which borders on issues of discipline, as null and void and of no effect, not being consistent with the provisions of the Constitution of the PDP (as amended in 2017).�