Four days to the August 17 National Convention of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the disagreement between the camps of the disputed National Chairman, Alhaji Ali Modu Sheriff, and the Ahmed Makarfi-led Caretaker Committee is yet to be resolved.
A reconciliation committee set up by the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT) has been meeting with key stakeholders with the view to resolving the crisis and ensuring that the convention holds as scheduled.
The 18-member committee headed by former Information Minister, Prof. Jerry Gana, has met with Sheriff, Makarfi, the party’s governors and its National Assembly leadership.
The BoT chairman, Senator Walid Jibrin, who spoke with our correspondent on the telephone yesterday, said that the BoT was still awaiting the report of the reconciliation committee. “The committee members have been working day and night and they have met with the various stakeholders, including Ali Modu Sheriff. I cannot say much on this matter until I receive the committee’s report,” Jibrin said
He was optimistic that the crisis would be resolved very soon and that the convention would hold as scheduled. The BoT chair allayed fears in the Sheriff camp that the party leadership might dump the former Borno State governor after the convention.
According to him, as a key stakeholder in the PDP, nobody can dump Sheriff for whatever reasons, stressing that Sheriff remained a bonafide member and a member of the BoT.
Sheriff was on May 21, removed as National Chairman at the party’s botched convention ground in Port Harcourt. The original intention of the conveners of the convention was to instal Sheriff as chairman for the next four years.
He was replaced with a seven-member caretaker committee headed by Makarfi. The committee was given a mandate to organise a fresh convention to elect a new set of party executives within 90 days. The 90 will elapse on August 20.
But Sheriff has continued to resist his sudden removal through a series of cases with multiple restraining orders against the caretaker committee. There are palpable fears that he may secure yet another court injunction that may put the convention on hold.
Sheriff has since ran a parallel administration in the party, insisting that the convention be put on hold and the Makarfi committee disbanded.
He has also insisted on being given a definite role in the planning of the convention at a yet to be determined date, stressing that the venue of the convention should be moved from Port Harcourt to Abuja.
Sheriff has also demanded the removal of the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, as the chairman of the convention planning committee.
The ex-Borno governor has similarly demanded that the local government and ward congresses conducted under his watch but which were cancelled by the Makarfi-led caretaker committee be upheld.
Sheriff, however, listed only five states where the congresses were yet to hold. He listed the states as Oyo, Lagos, Anambra, Kebbi and Sokoto States.
Addressing a delegation of his supporters from Yobe State in Abuja yesterday, Sheriff sounded denunciatory of the reconciliation committee set up by the party’s BoT.
Said he: “Members of the BoT are coming to see me. Even last night, they came to meet me at my place and the governors are also meeting with me.
“But that does not mean that we are going to agree on anything that will affect our integrity, followership and our political interests.
“As some of you rightly said, some of them were ashamed to identify with the party. Now the PDP has become a strong party, everybody is looking up to PDP and we will not be distracted.
“This party, as I rightly said, must be returned back to the owners. Anything short of that is a none-starter.
“What are our problems and how do we improve our standing so that it is not when we want to go for election that we run around to put the house in order? It is now that we should put the party in proper shape ahead of the election”.
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