A former National Assembly lawmaker, Senator Buruji Kashamu, has berated the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chief Uche Secondus for saying he is not a member of the party.
The senator who represented Ogun East at the upper chamber claimed that a political party belongs to no man, but to everybody.
Kashamu, who insisted he remained a member of PDP, in a press release signed on Sunday said his reaction was based on a publication in some national and online newspapers saying he is not a member of PDP.
However, the Senator claimed that the national body has no reason or evidence to disown him because he was not one of those who left the party to sign a three year agreement with Allied People’s Movement (APM) during 2019 governorship election.
He also said if the National Chairman of PDP go back to his record, he will discover that an FCT High Court on the 10th of October, 2018 nullified his expulsion from the party.
Kashamu noted that the Court had also directed parties to keep and maintain status quo and in particular not to carry out any disciplinary action without first having recourse to it.
“This was the premise on which I emerged and contested as the Ogun State governorship candidate of the PDP during the 2019 general elections.
“So, for these reasons, as former member of the National Executive Committee of the PDP and an automatic member of the State Executive Committee, I remain a bonafide and financial member of the PDP in Ogun State,” Kashamu declared.
The fill statement reads, “My attention has been drawn to a report in the ThisDay newspaper of 16th May, 2020, and several online publications, in which the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Uche Secondus said I am not a member of the PDP because, according to him, I had been expelled from the party.
“First, I need to let him know that the party at the national, state or local level is not about any individual. It is neither his private property nor is it mine. While it is true that he is the National Chairman of the PDP, it does not make him the owner or sole proprietor of the party who can determine or decide who is a member or not. As the National Chairman, he should be a father figure to all, not taking sides with some persons or stoking the fire of discord. At least, I am not one of those who left the PDP to sign a three-year agreement with the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) in the build up to the 2019 elections.
“On the ill-informed and unjust expulsion that Prince Secondus spoke of, he may wish to go back and check his records again. He would find that prior to the 2019 general elections, an FCT High Court on the 10th of October, 2018, nullified my expulsion, describing it as “an act done in gross and wilful violation of an express order of court made on the 9th of January, 2018, directing parties to keep and maintain status quo and in particular not to carry out any disciplinary action…without first having recourse to this Court.”
“The court went further to rule that, “The said letter of expulsion of 4 persons made by the Respondents hereof on the 1st of August, 2018 is hereby set aside and declared null, void and of no effect, in that it was made in gross violation of the aforesaid subsisting Order of Court.”
“One of the four persons referred to in the above court order is the former State Chairman, Engr. Adebayo Dayo, who is now in league with those Prince Secondus is siding with.
“The orders and judgment of the court have neither been appealed nor upturned. Thus, the judgment remains valid, subsisting and binding on the PDP; any contrary view again will be contemptuous of the court.
“This was the premise on which I emerged and contested as the Ogun State governorship candidate of the PDP during the 2019 general elections.
“So, for these reasons, as former member of the National Executive Committee of the PDP and an automatic member of the State Executive Committee, I remain a bonafide and financial member of the PDP in Ogun State.
“I take it that our National Chairman is either too busy with national affairs of the party to appreciate the local politics and realities in Ogun State or he has forgotten that the unjust expulsion had since been nullified and does not exist in fact and in the face of the law.
“I have also read Prince Secondus talking about the legality or otherwise of the congresses held in Ogun State. My response would be that the matter is already subjudice and any other attempt to discuss it or do anything about it would be contemptuous of the court. If he does not want to play a fatherly role in mediating and reconciling the contending forces, I would advise that he should leave the judiciary to decide the issues.
“Please see the court order and web links of some reputable newspapers that reported it.