The Presidency on Friday said Rivers State
Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, was free to resign from the Peoples Democratic Party,
if he was no longer ready to respect President Goodluck Jonathan and the
leadership of the party.
PDP leaders in Rivers State led by Minister of
State for Education, Nyesom Wike, and a former governor of the state, Dr. Peter
Odili, had met with President Goodluck Jonathan at the Presidential Villa, where
they tabled the governor’s alleged offences.
At the meeting, Jonathan said disregard for party
rules by public officers elected on the party’s platform should not be
tolerated.
The governor is currently under suspension for
alleged disobedience of the Rivers State PDP’s directive to reinstate the
chairman and executive of Obio/Akpor Local Government. He was also suspended
for running for a second term as chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum,
against the party’s directive.
Amaechi had last Saturday in Port Harcourt said
the party could not order him to reinstate the suspended local government
executives.
He also said if the PDP becomes uncomfortable for
him and his supporters, they might be forced to quit.
But speaking on behalf of the Presidency, Special
Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Dr. Ahmed Gulak, advised the
governor to leave the party voluntarily.
He said, “Discipline of party members lies with
the party leadership at the national level. If the state chapter is complaining
of anti-party activities by the governor, they will make such known to the
National Working Committee.
“Of course, you would recall that the state
chapter had forwarded a petition on the governor to the national leadership of
the party and based on that, the NWC suspended him.
“So the President was right by stressing at the
meeting that there would no longer be room for indiscipline in the party.
“It is expected that party members, no matter how
highly placed, should abide by the rules and regulations of the party.
“Anybody who is not ready to abide by party rules
can go to anywhere he wants to go. Anybody who does not believe in party
supremacy can look elsewhere where his excesses may be tolerated.
“From the President to councillors on the
platform of the party, the PDP expects a high level of discipline, loyalty and
respect for the party and its leader from them.”
Saturday PUNCH learnt that the meeting
considered ways to ease the governor out of the party, to pave the way for his
eventual removal by the courts.
A PDP source, who did not want to be named, said
Amaechi’s expulsion from the party was a matter of time.
“If Governor Rotimi Amaechi persists in his
misbehaviour, if he remains adamant in his opposition to the party leadership,
if he refuses to show respect and loyalty to the party and its leader, he will
have no room in the party.
“The national leadership of the party will be
left with no other option but to show him the way out.”
Neither the Rivers State Commissioner for
Information and Communciations, Mrs. Ibim Semenitari, nor the governor’s media
aide, David Iyofor, was willing to comment on the matter.
Saturday PUNCH learnt that the expulsion
option was considered because the impeachment option could not be immediately
pursued.
This is due to the refusal of the 27 members of
the Rivers State House of Assembly loyal to Amaechi to dump him.
Another obstacle is the court cases instituted by
the governor against any move to impeach him or probe his administration.
Saturday PUNCH learnt that the gameplan is
for the party to expel him from the fold and approach the courts for a judicial
declaration that he lacks the legitimacy to remain on his seat.
Section 59(5) of the amended PDP Constitution
2012 states, “Subject to the provisions of this constitution, the National
Executive Committee shall have power to expel any member of the party for acts
of indiscipline or misconduct which brings, or is likely to bring, the party
into disrepute.”
The plan is that after the party’s forthcoming
special national convention, the matter will be tabled at the next PDP NEC
meeting for consideration.
The party has shied away from taking a decisive
step against the governor to give time for Jonathan to consolidate his hold on
the PDP through the national convention.
The convention had been scheduled for July 20 but
had to be postponed because of the forthcoming Ramadan.
Acting PDP National Publicity Secretary, Tony
Okeke, declined to comment on the matter after earlier promising to speak.
Apparently confirming the fresh anti-Amaechi
move, spokesman for the five anti-Amaechi lawmakers in the house of assembly,
Mr. Evans Bipi, advised him to leave the party voluntarily and not wait to be
disgraced out.
“There is no plan to impeach Amaechi. But we want
him to leave voluntarily. He cannot be in the PDP and continue to romance with
the opposition party. He must leave by himself and we will not miss him if he
leaves the PDP.
“We will not miss him because he is not a threat
to the party’s ambition. The governor said the other day that if the party
continues to suffocate him, he would leave. Let him leave. We want him to leave
the party for us,” Bipi added.
Reacting, the Speaker of the House, Mr. Otelemaba
Amachree, maintained that it was not possible for the governor to be impeached
under his leadership since he (Amaechi) had not committed any impeachable
offence.
Amachree, who spoke through his Media Assistant,
Mr. Jim Okpiki, expressed optimism that any plot to remove Amaechi as the
governor would succeed.
“The Speaker would prefer to leave his position
in the House than to be a party to any plot to remove the governor. The truth
is that the plot to remove Amaechi will not work because he has not committed
any offence that should warrant his removal as a governor or his expulsion as a
member of the PDP,” he said.
Source: Punch
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