ABUJA—The National Disciplinary Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has said its mandate affects only persons who have petitions against them.
Chairman of the committee, Chief Tom Ikimi, said this while answering questions from journalists in Abuja yesterday.
He was asked if the committee was dealing with cases of alleged anti-party activists by party leaders from as far back as 2015.
Names of high-profile party leaders, including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Senator Bukola Saraki and Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Minister, Nyesom Wike, have been linked to such activities, which led to PDP’s successive losses in elections between 2015 and 2023.
Ikimi, who was flanked by ten members of the committee including Chief Eyitayo Jegede, Patrick Ifo and two ex-governors, Ibrahim Shekarau and Sam Egwu, took time to explain that the panel’s jurisdiction wasn’t restricted to the 2023 polls.
He said: “Whether acts were committed against the party in 2015, 2019, 2020 or any other year, we can do nothing about them, except there are petitions sent to this committee. This committee does not write petitions, we only attend to petitions that are sent to us.
“So, if there’s no petition against somebody, we are not going to do anything about it because that is not our business. I’m not out here to write petitions or deal with what is seen in newspapers.”
He explained that the committee was prepared to take the testimonies from former Benue State governor, Samuel Ortom, and embattled National Secretary, Senator Samuel Anyanwu, but noted that both could not appear.
“Last week Wednesday, we went through the various petitions before us and two petitions were slated for hearing today; one petition was against the National Secretary, Senator Samuel Anyanwu, and the other against some members of the party from Benue State, including former governor of Benue State, Dr. Samuel Ortom, and ten others.
“We were prepared to hear the petition today (yesterday), the petitions were served on them directly and through courier and we have evidence that the petitions arrived at their destinations.
‘’However, we could not proceed due to correspondences received from these two persons we were supposed to meet.
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“Former Secretary, Senator Anyanwu, sent us a letter indicating that he was not well and that he had medical challenges, and a medical appointment for today; he backed that up with a letter from his hospital and his doctor, so he, therefore, asked for another date.
“In the case of Samuel Ortom and others, they claimed that they had not received the petitions which were sent to them but the petitions were sent and we have evidence that they were sent to them.
“However, the committee has met and because we believe that we should give everyone fair hearing and that we should not ignore issues like health challenges, we have decided to the defer the hearing by another two to three weeks so that they will assure that they received the petitions sent to them.
“So, we have deferred the hearing to March 4; we believe all will be well and the committee is going to be fair to everyone.”
