The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Caretaker Committee, led by Senator Ahmed Makarfi, has asked security agents to put ‘National Chairman’ Senator Ali Modu Sheriff under watch.
In a statement yesterday by its spokesman Dayo Adeyeye, the Makarfi group “appeals to the Nigeria Police, the Department of State Service and indeed all security agencies to call Sheriff to order as well as keep more than an eye on him, so that he doesn’t precipitate crisis in any part of the country, … since we, as Nigerians already have enough on our hands to contend with.”
It said Sheriff lacked the power to suspend the Edo State PDP executive committee. Urging the Edo executive to ignore the purported suspension, the Makarfi group said it was part of Sheriff’s plan to create confusion, ahead of the governorship election.
Adeyeye maintained that the National Working Committee (NWC) headed by Sheriff had ceased to exist, following the setting up of the National Caretaker Committee by the National Convention in Port-Harcourt, capital of Rivers State.
Also yesterday, the Makarfi group said it would continue to work day and night to build followership for the party.
“The committee still wishes to renew its call to Senator Ali Modu Sheriff to embrace dialogue leading to peaceful resolution of the situation at hand”, another statement by Adeyeye added.
It denied that Makarfi and the Secretary of the committee, Senator Ben Obi, held secret meetings with an unnamed chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as alleged by Sheriff last week.
“On the other hand, as soon as the National Caretaker Committee was appointed, people started retracing their steps back to the Party.
But former Jigawa State Governor Sule Lamido raised the hope that the crisis is an indication that the party is strong and that it will soon be resolved.
Lamido told reporters in Bamaina village in Birnin Kudu Local Government, Jogawa state that the party would emerge stronger and bigger.
According to him, it is normal for people to fight for what is existent, valuable, worthy and important.
“PDP is a big party that has history and it is a party of conglomeration of all Nigerians across the devide.
“This is not our first crisis, if you go down our history from the formation of the party you will notice that this is not the first time we are having crisis.
“You can remember that the late Sunday Awoniyi had battle of leadership with former Chairman Banabas Gemade.
“We also had crisis during Audu Ogbeh’s reign.“You don’t fight for what is not in existence.
“PDP was in power for 16 years and the crisis and fight had always been with us,’’ he said.
He said that both Ahmed Makarfi and Modu Sherrif are members of PDP and would remain members no matter what happened.
Lamido said the party had the capacity to resolve its differences.
He gave the assurance that the discord within the party would soon be over.
The former governor stated that PDP would return to power in 2019 because it is a conglomeration of Nigerians.
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