Minority Leadership Crisis: Plot To Discredit Iyorchia Ayu-led Probe C’ttee Uncovered

There is a sinister plot to rubbish the Committee set up by the Peoples Democratic party, PDP, Board of Trustees to investigate the circumstances surrounding the emergence of Hon. Ndudi Elumelu as Minority Leader and three other Minority Officers, BIGPEN Online can report.

This followed a petition written by some elements who are said to be aggrieved about the emergence of Elumelu which had been concluded, gazetted and reflected appropriately in the votes and proceedings of the House of Representatives.

In a petition signed by Solomon Maren, Representing Mangu/Bukkos federal constituency of Plateau state and Amos Magaji Gwamma, representing Zango Kataf/Jaba Federal Constituency, Kaduna state under the auspices of Concerned PDP Reps, dated 17th of July and entitled: “Iyorchia Ayu Committee – Need for Chairman and Secretary to Rescue Themselves,” the petitioners had demanded that the Ayu-led investigative panel should stop functioning as there are clear indications that it has been compromised.

The petitioners had alleged bias by the former Senate President, Dr Iyorchia Ayu and Secretary, a former Deputy Speaker of the House, Chief Austin Opara in their probe of the minority leadership impasse, alleging specifically that Senator Ayu had already compromised himself before the impasse by instructing some Benue Reps to vote for a particular candidate and so cannot be a judge in his own case.

They also alleged that Rt. Hon. Austin Opara, who is from Rivers state and is a Godfather to one of the candidates that contested for the minority House leadership position, will not be expected to go against his political godson.

The petitioners, further alleged that one of the prominent members of the committee allegedly collected N15million and had insisted to continue the work until he was prevailed on by other members, then went ahead to pleaded with the party’s top hierarchy to politely remove all members of the committee with tainted records immediately.

But investigations within the PDP and inside the House of Representatives revealed that there is more to the petition signed by Solomon Maren and Amos Mogaji.

Reliable sources disclosed that the duo were not the original authors of the document, but their signatures had purportedly been procured for a fee by the original authors, in a plot masterminded by a very prominent PDP South South Governor and orchestrated by one of the contestants for the Minority Leader position in conjunction with others who lost out in the minority leadership race.

Multiple sources revealed that the plot behind the petition is actually targeted solely at discrediting and removing the Chairman of the BoT Probe Committee, Senator Iyorchia Ayu, who is well known and respected across the rank and file of the party as a Man of impeccable integrity.

It was gathered that the fear of the petitioners, according to solid PDP sources is that since Dr. Ayu does not come from South South where the two contestants for the post of minority leader come from, his position, as a true party man, will be to act in the interest of the party rather than that of an individual.

Sources claim that since there is no way of influencing his opinion, the grand ploy of the petitioners, is to discredit him and the committee members through levelling unwarranted accusations of graft and bias against them and painting them in a bad light.

Our sources said there are no tangible reasons to warrant these insults, on such respected and reputable leaders of the party, by alleging that money changed hands, amongst other claims.

“I can categorically tell you as a PDP House caucus member that the petition discrediting and calling for the removal of the committee chairman and Secretary, was the handwork of particular persons who lost out in the Minority leadership tussle and galvanized by two former immediate past principal officers from the South East and Kogi State, respectively.

“They are doing this on behalf of the prominent Governor from the South South. But my brother, it is only God that gives power, not man. In this case God has chosen His anointed Children and so all the glory must go to God not any man.

“Their actions were meant to further exhibit their desperation in their desire to see if they can upturn things, even when they have no concrete or substantial facts to support their allegation against the person of Senator Iyorchia Ayu”, the source said.

Further investigation also suggest that the Secretary of the Committee Rt. Hon. Austin Opara, may also be a willing and inevitable accomplice in the plot to initiate the petition, given the fact that one of the contenders for the position of Minority leader is from his state and since the position of the PDP National Chairman, who is also from Rivers State is very clear, he had no choice but to allegedly become culpable, especially since the reason for asking for his removal was very obvious and would go a long way to influence the decision for them to recuse themselves from the committee.

Insiders within the House of Representatives stated that both the petitions and all other covert and clandestine moves to discredit the Committee and upturn the announcement of Ndudi Elumelu and other Minority principal offices may just be a bridge too far for the plotters, in any case, by virtue of the fact that the Minority Leadership positions as announced by the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiala, has already been gazetted and the officers in question have resumed their duties.

“It will pay PDP better to sheath their sword and embrace the newly inaugurated principal officers from the party, in order to avoid losing out completely in the long run.

“This is because, inspite of the intrigues and allegations, the petitioners and their sponsors have no powers to change what has already transpired, bearing in mind that the election of the principal officers has authoritatively been endorsed by the gavel, which also culminated in the votes and proceedings being adopted by the House.

“Besides, it will take two thirds majority of the whole House, under Order 7 Rule 14, to change the tide and PDP does not have such numbers to decide otherwise”.

Our sources also suggest that “even in worst case scenario, that the party decides to expel them, they will still be minority leaders from any party at all, since they have already taken oath as members of the House and that will amount to PDP shooting themselves in the foot because it will end up not having any principal officers on the floor.

Investigations also revealed on good authority that Solomon Maran and Amos Mogaji, the said signatories to the petition have been attempting to meet and plead with the newly inaugurated principal officers to forgive them as it was not their intention to get at them in any way and they had even also been claiming that the intention of the petition was even meant to favour the the principal officers.

The sources reveal further that every attempt made by Maran to get the ear of the newly inaugurated principal officers were shunned by the officers, for the fact that they felt Hon. Maran was mischievous and an interloper who has no locus standi in terms of the matter because he neither contested for any of the positions nor is he from the South South region.

However, multiple sources said that if truly the petitioners were sincere, they should prove and give substantive evidence of the alleged N15 million bribe and other allegations, saying, “it was disheartening to see rich men go hungry and collect a morsel of porridge to destroy the party” as they so clearly stated in their petition, otherwise they should shut up their mouths and face what their constituencies elected them to do.

It was however learnt that since the duo of Hon. Solomon Maran and Hon. Amos Mogaji made the allegations, they have not been showing up regularly in the House of Representatives chamber in line with the stipulation of the relevant laws, since Parliament was inaugurated and there are hints that the House has taken cognizance of this infraction and will soon invoke the provision of the constitution as it relates to attendance, which if activated, would automatically open the way for their various constituencies to call for their recall, for reason of not attending sitting of the House in consonance to the mandate given to them as their representatives.

It could be recalled that the Dr. Iyorchia Ayu-led committee had met with Hon. Ndudi Elumelu and six other lawmakers; Wole Oke, Lynda Ikpeazu, Anayo Edwin, Gideon Gwadi, Toby Okechukwu and Adekoya Abdul-Majid, who were suspended by the PDP over the House of Representatives Minority leadership crisis a couple of days after the probe committee was set up.

The five-man committee, which is made up of eminent past leaders and principal officers of the National Assembly including, Sen. David Mark, Sen. Ibrahim Mantu and Sen. Adolphus Wabara, had been set up to intervene in the matter and submit their findings in Seven days, from the inauguration date of July 9.

The Chairman of the Committee, Senator Ayu, who spoke with journalists after the meeting with Elumelu and the others, had affirmed at that time that the matter was a family affair being handled by the elders of the party and assured categorically that the decision of the committee would be in the best interest of the party and the committee will not take any decision that will end up fictionalizing the PDP.

The Dr. Iyorchia Ayu-led Committee had a mandate of seven days to address the crisis and so was expected to have submitted its report to the PDP National Working Committee by July 15.

PDP and National Assembly watchers, wonder therefore, why the petition of Solomon Maran and Amos Mogaji is coming on July 17, two days after the Committee report must have been submitted, if not perhaps that the plotters of the petition may have been privy to the contents of report which may not have been in their favour, and so embarked on this ploy to discredit the entire membership of the Committee for their own selfish interests.