The crisis rocking the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Ondo State chapter, took a new twist, yesterday, as both the State Working Committee (SWC) and the National Working Committee (NWC) disagreed on suspension of Fatai Adams as chairman of the party in the state.

The NWC said that the suspension of Adams by nine members of the SWC was null and void and would subsequently have no effect.

The state chairman of the party was suspended on Tuesday by the executives of the party in the state over alleged anti-party activities.

Also, Adams said that he was still the chairman of the party in the state, emphasising that his purported suspension was politically motivated.

However, in a statement by the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Debo Ologunagba, the NWC said that the suspension was not in tandem with provisions of the constitution of the PDP (as amended in 2017) and laid down rules.

Ologunagba further stressed that the SWC lacked the power to contemplate or suspend a state chairman without due recourse to the NWC as stipulated in the constitution of the party.

The party’s spokesperson urged the SWC members to retrace their steps.

On its part, the SWC said that contrary to the position of the NWC on the decision to suspend Adams, all levels of the party have powers to discipline erring members of the executive, whether at the ward, council, state or zonal levels.

The Publicity Secretary of the party in the state, Kennedy Peretei, while describing the statement of Ologunagba on behalf of the NWC as embarrassing, said that he was ignorant of the constitution of the party as well as what is happening within the party in the state.

“The State Chairman, Fatai Adams, is a member of the SWC and can therefore be sanctioned in the face of his activities with flagrant disregard for the committee’s decisions. To this end, the suspension remains.

“Unfortunately, Ologunagba, who is from Ondo State, appears not to have up-to-date information about the party in the state. If he had, he would have been the last person to issue such a misleading statement.

“Nine out of the 11 SWC members signed the suspension letter. That alone is a confirmation that Fatai Adams has overstayed his usefulness as state chairman,” he said.