ABUJA – By Olusegun Lawrence There was commotion on Wednesday as supporters of Ali Modu Sheriff and Ahmed Makarfi clashed at the national secretariat of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Abuja.
Sheriff is laying claim to the chairmanship position of the party while Ahmed Makarfi, a former Governor of Kaduna state, heads the Caretaker Committee constituted at the party’s last convention in Port Harcourt, Rivers state.
Makarfi supporters stormed the secretariat displaying banner and calling on Sheriff to vacate the chairmanship position. They said he has been rejected by party leaders and Board of Trustees, BoT.
On their part, the supporters of Sheriff, who also displayed banner, called on the PDP Governors to rally round their man if the party must move forward.
It took timely intervention of the policemen deployed to the secretariat to prevent the situation from degenerating into violence.
Prompt News Online reports that the PDP Board of Trustees led by Senator Walid Jibrin, last week handed over party affairs to Caretaker Committee chairman, Ahmed Makarfi, who subsequently assigned responsibilities to the committee members.
But on Tuesday, Sheriff stormed the party secretariat and attempted to force his way in but the policemen on duty initially prevented him.
However, after making calls to Police higher authorities, he was allowed in to take charge.
He later addressed newsmen insisting that he remains the PDP national chairman since the exparte order granted by the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt, restraining him from parading himself as chairman had expired.
But barely 24 hours, the spokesperson for the Caretaker Committee, Dayo Adeyeye was also at the party secretariat, saying that they would not allow Sheriff to destroy the party. Adeyeye asserted that Ahmed Makarfi remains in charge of party affairs in the interim.
