Expulsion: Amaechi aides may drag PDP to court SIX Rivers State commissioners, who escaped the axe of the state Peoples Democratic Party, are considering dragging the party to court. The commissioners said it was necessary to take legal action against the state PDP for alleging that some of them (commissioners) were not expelled from the party because they sent in their reports to the Performance Evaluation Committee. Briefing newsmen in Port Harcourt on Wednesday, the state Commissioner for Employment and Economic Generation, Mr. Ipalibo Harry, said the action of the party was aimed at causing disaffection in the cabinet. Describing the action of the PDP as malicious, Harry said the commissioners would seek the advice of the state Governor, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi and the Attorney-General and Commissionere for Justice on the need to take the state PDP to court. He said, “Taking a legal action is like the proper thing to do because it is quite malicious to say that we, serving under our boss; the governor, presented ourselves to a kangaroo panel of the faction of the PDP that is not even recognised by us. “We believe in the Godspower Ake-led PDP exco and that is what we are part of. So, it will just not be the right thing to help them (the other group) achieve what they have set out to do; to cause disaffection. “It has a whole lot of legal implications. Incidentally, even the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice is also expelled from the party. But that does not expel him from the government. “There is nothing we will do, including legal actions, without seeking the advice and opinion of the governor and the legal input of the attorney-general. We will make consultations with our boss.” In his remark, the state Commissioner for Finance, Mr. Chamberlain Peterside, dispelled insinuations that he sent a representative and report on her performance to the Obuah-led PDP panel. Peterside said, “I was not here. I came back to the country from a trip on Saturday and I assume that the panel had sat the week prior to the weekend. I started work on Monday. Meanwhile, the immediate past Deputy National Chairman of the PDP, Dr. Sam Jaja, has described his alleged expulsion from the party by the factional state chairman of the party in the state, Felix Obuah, as an embarrassment to the party. Obuah had early in the week announced the expulsion of 18 members of the state party, including Jaja, citing anti-party activities as reasons for the action. Jaja, however, told journalists in Abuja on Wednesday that the expulsion was null and void because according to the party’s constitution, only the National Executive Committee of the party could discipline him, being a member of the body, the Board of Trustees and a member of the party’s national caucus. #PUNCHNEWS
Posted on: Thu, 29 Aug 2013 09:32:46 +0000