In the run-up to the general election in 2023, the Peoples Democratic Party plans to launch investigations into alleged anti-party behavior on the part of some of its members.
The Umar Damagum-led National Working Committee decided to form a committee to look into all instances of reported indiscipline and anti-party behavior by some party members before and during the elections on Tuesday following its 571st meeting.
According to a statement issued on Wednesday and signed by Debo Ologunagba, the PDP’s national publicity secretary, the NWC’s decision is a continuation of ongoing efforts by the national leadership of the party “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 has 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 the 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 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, former Governor of the State, Ahmed Makarfi, was suspended by the ward executive of his Tudun Wada Ward of Makarfi Local Government Area.
The national leadership would later upturn the suspension, saying that “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).
The party noted that Section 57 (7) provides that “Notwithstanding any other provision relating to discipline, no Executive Committee, at any level except the National Executive Committee, shall entertain any question of discipline as may relate or concern a member of the National Executive Committee, Deputy Governor or member of the National Assembly”.