N40m fraud: Bayelsa PDP chair petitions Mu’azu

National Chairman, Peoples Democratic Party, Adamu Mu’Azu

Chairman of the Bayelsa State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, Col. Samuel Inokoba (retd.), has petitioned the National Chairman of the party, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu, to protest his suspension by the State Working Committee on allegations of misconduct and diversion of N40m campaign funds.

Inokoba, who was suspended last week, said in his February 13 protest letter to Mu’azu and the National Working Committee of the party, that the action of the Bayelsa PDP SWC was “null and void and of no effect.”

The petition was written by Inukoba’s lawyers, Timi Ambaiowei & Associates.

The party chairman in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by our correspondent in Abuja on Sunday, insisted that his suspension contravened section 59 (3) of the constitution of the PDP.

He said that since he was elected in 2012, his tenure should end in 2016.

The four-page petition read in part, “The most disturbing aspect of the manifestly curious suspension is that the masterminds, who are highly placed officials, both within the party and the Bayelsa State Government, know that at this critical time of general elections in the country the entire PDP in Bayelsa State needs to work together as one solidly united and indivisible entity to deliver the party in the elections.”

Inokoba therefore appealed to Mu’azu and the NWC to “timeously invoke section 59 (3) of the PDP constitution and formally fold and declare that the purported suspension by the SWC is null and void and of no effect.”

Inokoba had been suspended by the members of the Bayelsa PDP SWC Wednesday last week for alleged misconduct and diversion of N40m gift provided for the party in the state by the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Allison-Madueke.

It was learnt that the decision to suspend Inokoba was taken last Tuesday after deliberations by members of the State Executive Council.

Publicity Secretary of the PDP in the state, Mr. Osom Makebre, who confirmed the suspension, had declined to give further details.

He however explained that the decision of the SEC had been forwarded to the national leadership of the party for ratification.