PDP Looks Up To Jonathan, Lamido, Mark To Lead Reconciliation

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has initiated moves to end leadership tussle between senators Ahmed Makarfi and Ali Modu Sheriff.

The move came on the wake of a meeting by various stakeholders of the party scheduled to hold today in Abuja.

Consequently, the PDP had established a 24-man joint reconciliation committee and started shopping for prominent party chieftains to steer affairs of the committee.

The Daily Trust, yesterday, gathered from reliable PDP stalwarts that the party had penciled down the names of former president Goodluck Jonathan, former Senate president, David Mark and former governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido for chairmanship of the committee.

A reliable source close to Sheriff and Makarfi, told our correspondent in a telephone interview, yesterday, that the Board of Trustees (BoT), National Assembly Caucus, PDP Governors’ Forum and other organs and stakeholders of the party, were shopping for a neutral person, who possessed impeccable character, integrity and was generally accepted, to chair the committee.

He said that Jonathan, Mark and Lamido were accepted by Sheriff and Makarfi, explaining that the three eminent politicians were chosen because of their understanding and workings of the party and politics in Nigeria.

He said that the Sheriff’s camp and the Makarfi-led National Caretaker Committee agreed to nominate 12 persons each to form the reconciliation committee.
“We have learnt our lessons since after the general elections,” he said.

When contacted on telephone, the national legal adviser and member of the Sheriff-led National Working Committee (NWC), Barrister Bashir Maidugu, said that the 12 persons were nominated by the Sheriff’s camp to serve in the committee.

Maidugu said that the names of the committee members would be made public when the Makarfi-led caretaker committee made names of its representatives known.

However, as at press time, Senator Makarfi and the spokesman of the PDP Caretaker Committee, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, were yet to respond to a text message sent to them on why lists of their nominees were not yet ready.

On the Abuja meeting, a chieftain of the party, ‎Prof. Tunde Adeniran, told our correspondent yesterday that the BoT, PDP governors, National Assembly Caucus and the NEC would meet today at the Yar’adua Centre.