The National Working Committee (NWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has suspended Ndudi Elumelu and other members of the party involved in a leadership crisis surrounding the minority leadership of the House of Representatives.
The decision was taken at the NWC held in Abuja on Friday.
Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila had on Wednesday announced Elumelu as minority leader in place of Kingsley Chinda favoured by the opposition PDP.
Gbajabiamila also named Toby Okechukwu as deputy minority leader, Gideon Gwani as minority whip and Adesegun Adekoya as deputy minority whip.
PDP, in a statement released after its NWC meeting, says it noted the roles played by the suspended members which resulted in Gbajabiamila reading another list for minority leadership other than the list submitted to him by the party.
It listed the members suspended as Ndudi Elumelu, Wole Oke, Lynda Ikpeazu, Anayo Edwin, Gideon Gwadi, Toby Okechukwu and Adekoya Abdul-Majid.
“After preliminary examination by the NWC, it was evident that the roles played by the above-mentioned members, bordered on indiscipline, insubordination and disobedience of party directives contrary to Section 58 (1)(b)(c)(f)(h) of the PDP Constitution (as amended in 2017), which provides that:
‘Subject to the provision of this Constitution, the Party shall have power to discipline any member who says or does anything likely to bring the party into disrepute, hatred or contempt; disobeys or neglects to carry out lawful directives of the party or any organ or officer of the party; engages in anti-party activities; or engages in any conduct likely to cause disaffection among members of the party or is likely to disrupt the peaceful, lawful and efficient conduct of the business of the party.
“Consequent upon this, the above-mentioned members of our party are hereby suspended for one month and this matter is hereby referred to the National Disciplinary Committee of our party, in keeping with Section 57(3) of the PDP Constitution,” the party said.
