A PENDING court case challenging the suspension order issued the Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi by
the leadership of his Peoples Democratic Party is the reason why the order has not yet been lifted, a fellow governor and party member, Governor Godswill Akpabio explained on Wednesday.
Mr. Akpabio spoke on behalf of the national caucus of the ruling party late on Tuesday after a meeting presided over by President Goodluck Jonathan at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa in Abuja. Akpabio, who is the chairman of his party’s governor’s forum spoke with journalists at the end of the closed-door meeting which ended at about 11 p.m, saying that the reversal of Amaechi’s suspension from the party would amount to over-reaching the decision of a competent court, sitting on the case challenging the action.
He said that it was easy for the National Working Committee to lift the suspension of Sokoto governor Aliyu Wamakko because the matter was not in court. “The PDP National Caucus was fully briefed on all issues pertaining to the party. “We made an appeal to the NWC to look at the suspension but the one of the Rivers State Governor is sub-judice because he has gone to court.
“The one of Sokoto did not go to court and so the suspension was lifted,” Akpabio said. Amaechi was suspended on May 27, over allegations concerning his refusal to heed the party’s instruction to reinstate the elected council chairman of Obio/Akpor Local Government Council in Rivers.
Wamakko, who was suspended on June 5 for alleged serial disobedience to party authority, had been recalled by the party. Akpabio said that the meeting also deliberated on the lingering crisis within the party and agreed that a high-powered team headed by the president should immediately embark on reconciliation.