Paul Osuyi, Asaba
The crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Aniocha Local Government Area of Delta State is getting messier by the day as the leadership of the party in the area has slammed an indefinite suspension on a sitting lawmaker, Mr. Emeka Nwobi.
Nwobi was suspended for alleged anti-party activities alongside five executive members of the party in the council.
They included the Secretary, Julius Ego; Woman Leader, Dorathy Udeh; Auditor, K.C. Ogbolue and Ejike Ogbechie and Patrick Nwaoba (ex-Officios).
The party said the six persons remained suspended from the PDP until their matter is determined by a seven-member disciplinary committee set up for the purpose.
Their suspension was contained in a statement signed by 18 members of PDP Aniocha North working committee including the party chairman in the area, Prince Victor Egbune.
Prince Egbune had earlier be allegedly removed by the affected members for what they described as incompetence, shortly after he led the party to pass a vote on confidence of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, state PDP chairman, Kingsley Esiso, and Delta North chairman, Moses Iduh.
However, the state leadership of the party has rubbished the purported removal of Egbune as chairman in Aniocha North.
The party, in a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Ifeanyi Osuoza, said Egbune remained the party chairman in the area, and urged the public to disregard the purported removal.
Osuoza denied the existence of crisis in the party, stating that “non of our twenty-five chapters has intractable issues. The said fake news is baseless, unfounded, tendentious, malicious and deliberately calculated to mislead the general public and should be disregarded in its entirety.”
Although, Nwobi could not be reached to react to his suspension, a dependable source close to him said there was nothing like suspension, adding that the LGA party chairman, Egbune who had been sacked by ten out of 14 executive members cannot suspend anybody.
The source added that there was already a counter suspension against one of the party bigwigs in the locality who is believed to be one of the brains orchestrating Nwobi’s travails.