More crisis appears to be brewing among the ranks of members of the Peoples Democratic Party in the South-West as a group within the party on Wednesday dismissed the suspension of the Zonal Chairman of the party, Chief Ishola Filani, from office.
The group under the aegis of South-West Peoples Democratic Party Leadership Forum which met in Abuja, called on the National Working Committee of PDP to dismiss the suspension.
Filani was suspended by the members of the executive committee of the South-West PDP in Ibadan on September 3.
He was subsequently ordered to leave office and stop parading himself as the vice chairman of the party in the zone.
But the South-West PDP leaders said their intervention in the crisis was geared towards discouraging any form of crisis within the party with the 2015 general elections fast approaching.
The PDP leaders, during a meeting which lasted more than five hours, dismissed the suspension of Filani, saying that the action was illegal.
Convener of the meeting, Chief Olabode George, said those who suspended Filani lacked the power to do so, because the constitution of the PDP stipulates that only the National Executive Council of PDP had such power.
He said moreover, those who suspended the PDP South-West caretaker ahairman failed to explore the normal channel of effecting such action since they did not lodge a formal complaint against him before announcing his suspension.
George stressed that the suspension of Filani by members of the committee was not good at this point in time because it was capable of breaking the fragile peace in the South-West arm of the party.
He said for peace to reign in the South-West PDP, Filani should be allowed to continue in office, since according to him, his suspension may affect the chances of the PDP in the coming general election in the zone, where he said the opposition group had been in strong contention.
The South-West PDP elders appealed to the PDP national secretariat to call those behind the suspension of Filani to order while prevailing on them to sheath their swords.
Also speaking on the issue, the PDP Chairman in Ondo state, Ebenezer Alade, said all South-West chairmen of the party were shocked by the report of the suspension of Filani.
He said the Committee members who claimed to have removed Filani from office did not carry them along in taking their action.
He also affirmed that members of the commitee did not file any complaint before the party and had not indicated at any point in time that the suspended chairman did any wrong before taking the action.