The former Senator who represented Benue North East district, Gabriel Suswam, has described as libelous, vexatious, and provocative a publication authored by one Bemgba Iortyom announcing his suspension from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), along with some other members from the Benue State chapter of the Party.
A statement by the ex-Governor’s Media aide, Bartholomew Bede futher indicates that the publication also falsely, and libelously accused Gabriel Suswam and others of ungounded offences namely,
- “…..the invasion of the party’s State Secretariat in Makurdi Wednesday 7th August by thugs and hoodlums led by suspended State Chairman, John Ngbede which credible intelligence reveals was under the sponsorship and support of the Suswam led group.”
- Of acts inimical to the good health and interests of the party, including diversion of campaign funds during the 2023 elections, sponsoring of factions and thuggery within the party, sponsoring of publication of internal party disputes, sponsoring of court litigations against the party without recourse to the internal dispute resolution mechanisms of the party among several other things.
- ” Of also being a spokesperson and errand runner to APC’s Governor Hyacinth Alia to the extent that even when the PDP Governorship Candidate,Titus Uba was still in court challenging the outcome of the election; Suswam was going about drumming support for the Governor at public functions, with specific reference made to his speech at the burial of late Akua Aper Aku.”
He also noted that the unfounded allegations constitute grave tissues of lies and are injurious to the hard-earned reputation of Gabriel Suswam.
Bede argued that by the relevant provisions of Article 57(4) of the PDP Constitution 2017 (as amended), only the State Disciplinary Committee constituted by the State Executive Committee (SEC) pursuant to Article 57(2) in line with Article 57(1) of the PDP Constitution has the statutory power to summon Gabriel Suswam, or any other member of the Party to appear before the State Disciplinary Committee to ventilate on the alleged acts, pursuant to Article 58. Even at that, by virtue of Gabriel Suswam, being a member of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Party as provided under Article 31(1) of the PDP Constitution, the SEC is disentitled from entertaining or initiating any disciplinary action against him as provided by Article 57(7) and Article 59(3).
The statement said: “Thirdly, granted but not conceding that the SEC can even initiate disciplinary proceedings against him, such a summons must be served on him and others personally as provided in Article 57(4), whereas the said publication was only circulated on the social media, obviously to defame, malign, injure his good reputation and diiscredit and lower his self esteem and that of the others before his/their teeming supporters in PDP and in the eyes of members of the general public.”
He maintained that the author of this libelous, false and vexatious publication and his sponsors are also fully aware that the Benue PDP SEC is not in receipt of any complaints, talklesss of a petition against Gabriel Suswam, or any of the other mentioned persons and has therefore not constituted any Disciplinary Committee to deal with any petition concerning the affected persons; hence this publication for all intent and purposes is designed to ridicule them.
Former Governor Suswam therefore demanded that the author and his sponsors immediately issue a retraction of the said publication in two National Dailies, Radio Announcements and publication on all social media platforms within 7 clear days from the receipt of this communication, adding that, failure to comply within the stipulated time, will leave him with no other options than to seek legal redress for a N50 Billion claim in libel to redress the damage done to their collective image and reputation.
Editor: Ken Eseni
