Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godsday Orubebe yesterday dismissed purported his suspension by a faction of the Burutu Local Government chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
Factional chairman of the party in the council, Kenneth Ogeibiri had announced that the minister had been suspended from the party in his local government along with nine others over allegation of “gross misconducts likely to bring about disrepute, hatred, contempt and anti-party activities.”
Speaking with State House correspondents in Abuja yesterday, the minister said that the faction which purportedly suspended him was an illegal body which was not recognised either by himself or the party.
He explained that the duly elected executive committee of the party in the council was still in place while the faction was merely engaged in attention seeking behaviour by announcing his suspension from the PDP.
“That body is an illegal body. You are aware that this is a government that stands for the truth; it is a government that is transforming. We had a PDP elected body in place and from behind, a group of people went and imposed imposed an illegal body on the people.
“And I said I will not recognise them because the one that was duly elected by everybody that came to elect the national chairman and the national exco is the one that I do recognise.
“And so, that is a factional group which I don’t recognise and they don’t have any power to do what they are doing, and they also know that they are just looking for cheap attention and I don’t look at it.”
The minister noted that the “authentic chairman” of the party in the council had already advised party members to disregard the purported suspension as the faction has no power to issue such order.
He also assured that there was no crisis in the party in the local government which could affect its fortunes in the 2015 general election.
Orubebe said: “Politics is a game of people with different interests and what they are doing is also talking about their own interest. But our interest is the interest of the party and we have the body that is legally elected. And so, we don’t have crisis as far as the issues of 2015 are concerned.
“And everything is in place for us to deliver to the PDP what is expected of us as a party in Burutu Local Government Area.”