24th March, 2023
Benue State Governor has attacked the National Chairman of the PDP, Iyorchia Ayu, saying he has lost sense of direction and should be the one sent to disciplinary committee for losing his polling unit, ward and the state in the general elections.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had on Thursday referred Ortom to the disciplinary committee for anti-party activities.
But the Benue State Governor, in a statement issued by his spokesman, Nathaniel Ikyur, said the National Working Committee of the PDP is acting in contempt of a subsisting Court Order by referring him to the disciplinary committee of the party for alleged anti-party activities.
Ortom said it is contemptuous of the leadership of the PDP to disregard the Court Order which barred the party or any organ of the party from issuing any disciplinary measure against him.
According to the Governor, “the case is pending in court and there is an order of injunction restraining all organs of the party from carrying out disciplinary actions against the Governor. This Case is adjourned to 18th April 2023 and so it is baffling to see such a statement coming from the national leadership of the party.
“I think the national leadership of our party is losing its sense of direction. Instead of the leadership to sit back and think of ways of rebuilding the party following the aftermath of the just concluded elections, they are going about chasing imaginary shadows.
“In any case, the first person the party should refer to the disciplinary committee should be the national chairman, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu. According to the results released by INEC, the PDP national chairman lost his polling unit, lost his ward, local government, and even the state.
“As if that is not enough, there are strong indications that the national chairman was involved in anti-party activities in Benue State by working for the opposition All Progressives Congress, APC, just to get at me because of my principled stand against certain aspects of the decisions of the national leadership of the party.”
Ortom said PDP did not deserve to be dragged to disrepute by some individuals who were bent on destroying the party to massage their selfish egos.