Why we disqualified Sylva –PDP

Posted by admin Bayelsa, Party Politics, Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP), State News Sunday, November 20th, 2011

Acting National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Abubakar Kawu Baraje, yesterday, explained why the party disqualified Governor Timipre Sylva from the governorship primary, saying it was due to his untoward behaviour towards the party.

Baraje, who spoke to journalists after a closed-door meeting with former President Olusegun Obasanjo at the inner chamber of the Presidential Lounge of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, said the party was not satisfied with some of the actions of the governor, which he alleged contravened its constitution and rules and regulations.

He maintained that Sylva’s disqualification was not new in the party, as it had taken such disciplinary action in the past against a sitting governor in Anambra State.
He noted that Sylva’s case became a subject in the media because he was seeking re-election on the platform of the party.

“We don’t have any fears. PDP is fully on ground in Bayelsa; it is a PDP state. Maybe because Sylva is a serving governor and for the very first time PDP is disqualifying a serving governor. It has happened in PDP before. We have disqualified a governor in Anambra before. He was a serving governor, so it not new.
“We did not disqualify Sylva because of anybody. We have our rules and regulations. We have constitution and the party is not very satisfied with some of the actions of Governor Sylva in line with our constitution. And we called his attention to it and he accepted.

“But as a serving governor, you don’t expect him to come out and say I have offended my party and that is why they disqualified me. That is our own internal matter and we are solving our problem in the very best way,” he said.
Baraje insisted that the party did not receive any court order restraining its from conducting the primary, stating what the party received was a “motion on notice” requiring it to respond to why the prayers in the motion should not be granted.

“There is no drama in Bayalsa; there is no injunction and there is no court order. What we have was a motion on notice and we said that to the press that what we have is not a court order. What the PDP had was a court notice, motion on notice for the PDP to show why some of the prayers in the notice should not be granted and we have done that since yesterday (Friday). That is why we are going ahead with our primary.”
Baraje stated that the party would let Nigerians know Sylva’s ‘sins’ after its national congress in Abuja, saying it would not want to ridicule the governor.
-Sunwp_posts