PDP suspends top members Fayose, Anyim

Nigeria’s main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party, has suspended former Senate president Pius Anyim and former governor of Ekiti State, Ayo Fayose.

The party said Gov. Samuel Ortom of Benue will face its disciplinary committee, accusing him of anti-party activities. It also suspended Dennis Ityavyar, a Benue state party official, and Aslam Aliyu from Zamfara state, for the same reasons.

Mr Ortom supported the candidate of the opposition Labour Party for the last presidential election, while Mr Fayose backed the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu, who was declared president-elect.

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The party’s move was expected after a widening internal rebellion helped narrow its chances at the general elections that finished last weekend. It comes days after the party expelled former Enugu governor, Chimaroke Nnamani for anti-party activities.

Mr Ortom and four other governors, led by Gov. Nyesom Wike of Rivers, rejected the party’s presidential candidate, former vice president Atiku Abubakar, and campaigned against him.

In a statement Thursday, spokesperson Dele Ologunagba said the PDP national working committee, its highest decision-making arm, met and decided to punish the named members. The party did not say what action it planned to take against Mr Wike.

While the party did not state Mr Anyim’s offence, Premium Times quoted a source as saying he was sanctioned for his support for the APC governorship candidate in his native Ebonyi state.

– More rebellion

Mr Fayose, who backs the Wike group, recently urged voters in Sokoto state to vote against the PDP candidate endorsed by Gov. Aminu Tambuwal. He demanded the resignation of Iyiorchia Ayu, the PDP national chairman.

Mr Fayose dismissed his suspension as the “last kick of a dead horse”, according The Cable, which quoted his spokesperson, Lere Olayinka.

He was quoted as saying that members of the party’s leadership were “only entertaining themselves with the purported suspension as their latest comedy skit”.

“The purported suspension will have no leg to stand,” he said.

He said in a matter of days the “tenure of Ayu as national chairman of PDP will become history and the party will enjoy a new lease of life”.