Bayelsa PDP Chairman Suspension: We’ve Been Vindicated by Court Verdict, Says Secretary

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Bayelsa State on Wednesday said it has been vindicated by the decision of an Abuja High Court which ordered Col. Sam Inokoba (retd), from parading himself as the State Chairman of the party.

A statement issued in Yenagoa by the Secretary of the party’s State Working Committee, (SWC), Mr. Keku Godspower, said the decision of the court has justified the action of the SWC to suspend Inokoba, over allegations of incompetence and ineptitude, including acts of financial impropriety in the alleged diversion of N70million donated to the party by the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Allison-Madueke for the Bayelsa Presidential rally.

He was alleged to have pocketed N40 million and presented only N30 million to the PDP SWC, which later discovered that, he actually received the sum of N70 million from the Petroleum Resources Minister.

It was further alleged that, angered by his suspension, Inokoba worked against his own Assembly candidate, Hon. Tonye Isenah of the PDP in the State Assembly polls, an act which has been described as a clear case of an anti-party activity.

While major stakeholders of the PDP in the Bayelsa State, are calling for the outright sacking of the suspended Chairman from his position and the party, Mr. Godspower Keku, advised him to go and defend himself before the disciplinary committee over his alleged anti party activities, stressing that, erring members are going be disciplined to serve as a deterrent to others.

Justice Valentine Ashi of an FCT High Court in Abuja had ordered Inokoba to stop parading himself as chairman pending the determination of the motion of notice which is in Court.

The verdict was said to have since put the camp of the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan and her cohorts who are engaged in dangerous power play in total disarray.

In his judgment on the definite hearing delivered on (Monday) May 11 but obtained by Judiciary correspondents on Tuesday in Abuja, Justice Ashi ordered that, “Interim order of injunction earlier granted on March 23 is hereby declared to subsist and shall remain in force as binding on the defendants pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice.”

Since his suspension over four months ago, Inokoba has neither gone to the party secretariat nor thought it fit to campaign for the PDP during the just-concluded elections.