A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Umar Sani, has faulted the recent suspension moves by the faction loyal to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, insisting that the group lacks the legitimacy to sanction anyone within the party.

Speaking on Arise Television’s Morning Show on Friday, Sani said Wike and National Secretary Samuel Anyanwu had already been expelled by the party at a duly constituted national convention and therefore had no authority to announce counter-suspensions.

The remarks come amid an escalating leadership tussle within the PDP, marked by suspensions and counter-suspensions issued by opposing factions aligned with Wike and the party’s national leadership.

However, Sani stated that Wike’s faction’s expulsion followed a formal process during the convention, noting that it was not done “in hiding,” as alleged in some quarters.

He said: “First and foremost, a person who has been expelled from the party at the national convention of the party has no right whatsoever to go into hibernation and then draw up a list and say, ‘We have expelled other people,’ when you have already been expelled by a convention.

“We did not expel them in hiding. We didn’t just go and write names and expel them. A motion was moved at the convention, and that motion was moved by Chief Bode George, and it was seconded, and that motion was passed at our national convention.

“No court in the land, anywhere, has ever said that that convention is illegal, null and void, and of no effect, and so it has been set aside. So, the outcome of a convention is final.”