ABUJA – By Paul Efiong The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Ali Modu Sheriff Thursday walked out on party Chieftains at a stakeholders meeting called by former President Goodluck Jonathan at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua centre in Abuja.
Sheriff’s action was a protest against refusal of party bigwigs present to recognise him as the national chairman of PDP and to allow him address the meeting in that capacity
Prompt News recalls that a Court of Appeal has ruled that Sheriff is the authentic national chairman of the PDP.
The Ahmed Makarfi-led Caretaker Committee is however challenging the Appellate Court’s ruling at the Supreme Court.
“I respect Dr. Jonathan. He is a former President but as of today, I’m the most senior member of this party. Therefore, if I respect him, the respect must be reciprocated.
“You can’t call me for a meeting of PDP and say I cannot address the meeting as national chairman of the party. We are here for PDP stakeholders’ meeting and the PDP has only one national chairman, which is Ali Modu Sheriff.
“There is no PDP meeting that will take place under whatever arrangement that I will not open the session as national chairman. Today, I’m the most senior member of this party.
“I think Governor Seriake Dickson made a proposal for reconciliation. And we have accepted. Some people want to deviate from this programme, to bring agenda which was not part of it.
“And as national chairman of the party, what I have told you people in my office when Dickson brought the report is the only thing that we have agreed at this moment. And I will not be party for anybody using me for another programme. I’m not going to be part of it,” Sheriff told newsmen.
The meeting however went ahead during which Jonathan set up a 40-man committee to profer lasting solution to the crisis rocking the opposition party.
It is expected to turn in its report in two weeks.
Speaking, Jonathan said, “The committee will be chaired by any of us but we will consult widely. I may chair the committee or if I’m not there, former Vice President Namadi Sambo or Senator David Mark may chair that committee. But if I’m around, I will chair the committee.
“The BoT will select six people, one per geo-political zone. Each of the blocks will bring six persons, one per geo-political zone.
“All our governors will be members; Deputy Senate President, Senate Minority Leader; Minority Leader, House of Representatives and Minority Whip; two former governors from both groups, one from the North, one from South; two former ministers, one from the North, one from South; two women, one from the North, one from the South and two youths.
“Within two weeks, they will come up with strong recommendations. And a smaller group larger than that committee will meet.
“By the time we come back, those minor areas that caused what we saw in the earlier part of the meeting (Sherrif storming out) will not be there again because all those issues must have been smoothen out. We regret that little situation we encountered.
“We have to remind ourselves that the prolongation of the crisis in our party may have cost us so much in election fortunes, in recent time.
“The loss of Edo and Ondo gubernatorial elections is still fresh in our memory. It goes without saying that we cannot afford to have a repeat of that in the forthcoming elections in Anambra, Ekiti and Osun states.
“It is high time we buried the hatchet, suppressed our ego and prepared to make sacrifices in the interest of our party and, in deed the country.
“Our ambitions, therefore, must come second, otherwise we will only be building castles on quick sand. We must realise that as they say, everybody is nobody without a platform. So, why destroy the platform?
“I urge our teeming members to remain steadfast and continue to believe in the PDP. As I said earlier, it is true that we suffered a setback in 2015, but the fact remains that the PDP is still the largest party in our dear country.
“There is no doubt that the PDP will emerge from this moment of trial to regain its position as the greatest party on our continent.”
Present at the meeting were Sen. Ahmed Makarfi, Chairman of the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT), Senator Walid Jibrin, Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, Governors Nyesom Wike (Rivers); Ayo Fayose (Ekiti) ; Darius Ishaku (Taraba); deputy governors of Gombe and Ebonyi states, former members of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC), including Uche Secondus; Olisa Metuhand Abubakar Mustapha among others.
