Six
days to its National Convention in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State
capital, all is still not well with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Factional National Chairman Senator Ali Modu Sheriff yesterday asked that the convention be put on hold.
But, Caretaker Committee Chairman Senator Ahmed Makarfi said the convention would hold.
Sheriff also demanded that its venue be moved from Port Harcourt to Abuja on a yet to be agreed date.
He tabled his demands at a meeting with
some members of the PDP Board of Trustees (BoT) Reconciliation Committee
in Abuja on Tuesday night. The meeting ended in the wee hours
of yesterday.
Sheriff also demanded the removal of Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike as chairman of the Convention Planning Committee.
He also asked that the local government and ward congresses conducted by his group but cancelled by the Makarfi camp be upheld.
Leader of the reconciliation team Prof. Jerry Gana promised to take Sheriff’s message to the BoT in council.
The reconciliation team was raised by the BoT to prevail on Sheriff to ensure that the party held the convention united.
At the meeting, Sheriff blamed the leaders and some members of the BoT for the “lingering crisis”.
According to him, the crisis would have
been prevented if the BoT leadership and members had been alive to their
responsibilities.
He said: “If our leaders have taken
their responsibilities, we would never have had most of the problems we
are facing today. When a leader refuses to stand up to his
responsibilities, there will be problem.
“Some of our leaders are party to our problem. The moment we want to use one impunity to address another, it will not work”.
He urged the reconciliation team to go back and address his demands and arrive at a lasting solution to the crisis.
Speaking with reporters, Gana said the committee had taken note of the problems within the party.
He said: “We are delighted that there is
a clear resolution on the determination and the desire that the
problems be resolved, unity be re -established and for PDP to move
forward”.
The PDP, he said, would resolve the
crisis and come out of it stronger, adding: ”Nigerians are waiting for
PDP, they are missing PDP, they are crying and yearning for PDP because
the 16 years of democracy cannot be wasted away”
Those in the Gana team included former
Jigawa State Governor Sule Lamido, his Enugu State counterpart, Dr.
Okwesilieze Nwodo, Deputy Senate Minority Whip Senator Abiodun Olujimi,
Mrs. Stella Omu, former Minister of Aviation Ambassador Fidelia Njeze,
former Minister of Women Affairs Hajia Inna Ciroma and Air Commodore Dan
Suleiman (rtd), among others.
On Sheriff’s side were PDP Vice Chairman
(Southsouth) Dr. Cairo Ojougboh, Senator Hope Uzodinma and former
presidential aide Alhaji Ahmed Gulak, among others.
Accusing the Sheriff group of
maintaining a hardline position on the crisis, Makarfi, who spoke on
Channels Television monitored in Lagos, said his camp had sat with the
other side 20 times without a headway. He said of the 15 suits pending
in court, none was filed by his group. “We are defendants”, he said,
adding that three of the four court rulings favoured the caretaker
committee.
Makarfi said the appointment of Sheriff
as acting PDP chairman was wrong, noting that Sheriff’s name was not
among the five presented by the Northeast zone of the PDP to replace and
complete the tenure of the former Chairman, Adamu Mu’azu, who resigned.
Some PDP governors, he said, inserted
Sheriff’s name into the list. “When the list was presented to the
expanded National Executive Committee (NEC) for consideration, many
people walked out of the meeting in protest against the inclusion of
Sheriff’s name”, he said.
After reconciliation, he said, it was
agreed that Sheriff would serve for three months within which he would
organise national convention where substantive party officers would be
elected.
According to him, the agreement was
breached as Sheriff started planning to succeed himself and plotting to
emerge as the PDP presidential candidate in 2019. Sheriff, Makarfi
claimed, promised three governors the running mate ticket. “This is what
led us to where we are today”, he said.
On the legality of the national
convention purportedly held on May 20, by his group in Port Harcourt,
Makarfi explained that there was no court order stopping the convention,
the court only restrained the party from conducting election for the
office of the national chairman, national secretary and national
auditor.
“The May 20 Convention sacked the
Sheriff-led executive. The convention has power to set up any organ;
that was how the caretaker committee came to be. It was monitored by the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). I have with me a copy
of the INEC’s report which states that the May 20 convention did not
contravene any court order”. On the planned August 17 convention,
Makarfi said: “It will hold as scheduled; none of the 15 law suits has
restrained us from holding the convention”.
Makarfi said PDP would come out of the
crisis stronger, stating: “We have to find our feet as a major
opposition party in the country. I am sure within two or three months,
we will get over all these problems and PDP will become solid”.
On the zoning of the party’s offices,
Makarfi said they were zoned between north and south. “There can be
micro-zoning within the two divides (i.e. north and south); that
notwithstanding, every member has the right to seek election for any
position zoned to the divide they belong”, he said.
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