Senator
Ahmed Makarfi-led National Caretaker Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party
on Tuesday alleged that the sacked acting national chairman of the party,
Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, was acting a script written for him by the ruling All
Progressives Congress.
The
Publicity Secretary of the committee, Dayo Adeyeye, said this at a press
conference addressed by five out of the seven members of the committee in
Abuja.
The
committee described Sheriff’s “takeover” of the party secretariat as a brazen
act of lawlessness and an attempt to set the stage for a violent confrontation.
The
ousted acting national chairman, Sheriff, currently leads a faction of the
party, which also includes a few members of the sacked National Working
Committee, while Makarfi, who enjoys the support of the PDP governors and the
Board of Trustees, leads another faction.
The
PDP had, until last month, split into three factions with one of the factions
led by Senator Ibrahim Mantu; the second consisted of governors, while the
third was headed by Sheriff.
The
governors and other stakeholders had, on May 21, converged on Port Harcourt for
the party’s national convention, where a caretaker committee, headed by
Makarfi, was constituted.
The
Mantu group, which held a separate meeting in Abuja on the day the Port
Harcourt convention held, later on June 7, endorsed the Makarfi committee.
But
the Sheriff faction described the caretaker committee as illegal, saying it had
no place in the PDP constitution.
Adeyeye
alleged that Sheriff, in company with the former National Secretary, Prof.
Olawale Oladipo, and former National Auditor, Alhaji Fatai Adeyanju, invaded
the secretariat with three lorry loads of thugs and bandits as early as 6am on
Monday.
According
to him, when rumour of the planned invasion filtered out on Sunday, members of
the committee took steps to alert the police to secure the building and to protect
the lives and property of members.
He
added, “Up to a point, the police discharged their responsibilities
satisfactorily. However, later on, without any justification whatsoever, Ali
Modu Sheriff and the other renegades were allowed to gain entry into the
secretariat, where they later proceeded to address a press conference.’’
He
stressed that it was curious that the police claimed to be acting on “orders
from above” in allowing Sheriff and his cohorts to gain entry into the
secretariat.
Adeyeye
said, “The All Progressives Congress has contracted Sheriff and his cohorts to
scuttle the chances of the PDP in the Edo governorship election.
“We
have credible intelligence that Sheriff had a meeting on Sunday night with an
(unnamed) APC governor from the North-West, where it was organised that he
would be given full security and financial support to exacerbate the crisis in
the PDP with the objective of preventing the PDP from presenting a candidate
for the Edo governorship election, or in the very least, to prevent the PDP
from offering a serious challenge to the APC, whose electoral fortunes have
continued to nosedive.”
In
his reaction, however, Sheriff’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Inuwa
Bwala, said, “Senator Ali Sheriff is too big to be used by anybody, least of
all the APC, to destroy a party he is trying to and weaning from the milk of
impunity and rebuilding to give Nigerians a credible alternative.
“He
left the APC based on principle and has not had contact with the party ever since.
The so-called caretaker committee knows that INEC will not accept any list from
it; so, it is desperate to get recognition.
“We
know for certain that the leader of that group has a presidential ambition and
he appears to have recruited some governors, who are now backing him to use the
PDP platform, knowing that Ali Sheriff is a stickler for the right things being
done; he sees him as an obstacle that must be removed.”
The
Makarfi-led caretaker committee, however, assured the Edo people that the party
was doing everything to ensure that the PDP platform was not hijacked by
political merchants.
The
committee said the process for the primary of the PDP governorship candidate
for the state started on Monday with ward congresses.
The
committee alleged that Sheriff and his backers had continued their attempt to
buy any court order at any price, adding that the embattled ex-acting party
boss had not succeeded because of the vigilance and integrity of the judiciary.
Adeyeye
said Sheriff was appointed, not elected by the National Executive Committee of
the PDP to complete the tenure of Alhaji Adamu Ma’uzu.
He
said the appointment of the caretaker committee was in line with the PDP
constitution and its extant laws.
“We
also wonder who he would be chairman over when he (Sheriff) has already been
rejected by 99.99% of the party,” Adeyeye said.
A
member of the committee, Senator Abdul Ningi, also told journalists that he
suspected the involvement of the government in the crisis.
He
alleged that the high level of security around Sheriff left no one in doubt on
the support of the government for Sheriff.
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