The crisis rocking the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) might soon be over if feelers from the camp of factional chairman of the party, Ali Modu-Sheriff is anything to be believed.
On Monday, the faction said openly that it was tired of the crisis rocking the party, and such, would not go to the Supreme Court should the pending judgement from the Appeal Court in Port-Harcourt over the leadership tussle in the party, does not favour the faction.
Speaking at a press conference at the temporary secretariat of the party created by the faction, Modu-Sheriff represented by his deputy, Cairo Ojougboh said that though the faction does not recognise the caretaker committee led by Senator Ahmed Makarfi as anything within the party, but if the court affirms that the committee is a legal body, with power to run the affairs of the party, such orders of the Court of Appeal will not be contested at the Supreme Court.
It would be recalled that the Special Appeal Court Panel put together to resolve the Ondo State Governorship candidate crisis of the PDP had last year upheld the caretaker committee as the recognised body to nominate candidate for the PDP.
Hence, Jimoh Ibrahim selected by the Modu-Sheriff faction as the PDP candidate for the Ondo governorship election was dropped for Eyitayo Jegede nominated by the caretaker committee.
Jegede, who got his mandate back less than 48 hours to the election eventually lost the contest to the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Rotimi Akeredolu.
In the same vein, the administrative workers of the PDP yesterday openly rejected the claim of Modu-Sheriff to the leadership of the party as they blatantly shunned the meeting called by the faction with the workers.
Independent had exclusively reported yesterday (Monday) that the workers won’t attend the meeting called by the Modu-Sheriff faction.
At the interactive session with newsmen yesterday Ojougboh told journalists that the workers didn’t show up at the 21 Gana Street temporary secretariat of the Modu-Sheriff faction because the workers were yet to fully report for duty after the holiday break.
However, while he was making excuses for their absence at the meeting called by the faction, 54 members of the PDP staff were gathered at the temporary secretariat being run by the caretaker committee where a meeting was held.
At the end of the meeting, an attendance list was signed by the workers to affirm their decision which was that the Ali Modu-Sheriff faction must prove its innocence of allegations that it’s working for the ruling APC to destabilise the party.
In doing this, the staff demanded that the Modu-Sheriff faction must openly join the clamour for the reopening of the sealed National Secretariat of the party, which has been the demand of the caretaker committee, and as well, begin to issue statements in tackling the government of the APC especially, policies that Nigerians complain about.
According to the PDP staff union, the role of opposition to APC which is the natural duty of PDP as at today, is being done by the Makarfi-led caretaker committee while the Modu-Sheriff faction behave as if it doesn’t notice anything wrong with the APC government.
The staff also said they were aware of his disloyalty to the cause of the PDP in the Edo and Ondo governorship election in which he tacitly worked in the interest of the APC to the detriment of the PDP.
But while the 90 days mandatory life span of the reserved judgement of the Appeal Court, River State Division continues to count down, the Modu-Sheriff faction insisted that it was expectant of a good and favourable judgement at the appellate court.
The faction insisted that the caretaker committee led by Sen. Ahmed Makarfi came through the back door and would leave through the back door.
“Prior to the national convention in Port Harcourt in May 2016, no member of caretaker committee was a member of the party executive. They were brought in through the back door and through the back door they will go.”
Giving assurances that the legal battle in the party will soon be over he said, “We agreed with the stakeholders that whatever is the outcome of the Appeal Court nobody should appeal against it.
“For us, we will accept it and everybody should accept it. After the court judgement, all of us will sit down again and discuss. It is obvious that the Port Harcourt judgement will be the deciding factor. Anybody who will go ahead after the judgement it is up to him.”
Although Ojougboh, speaking on behalf of Modu-Sheriff did not disclose where the agreement took place, he, however, said that, “the agreement not to appeal is as a result of consultations with some organs of the party.”
The faction claimed that their action have actually done well in strengthening party democracy in Nigeria because their action has helped in fighting impunity even in the ruling APC.
According to him, the dogged fight by the faction has prevented some other political parties from throwing out their leaders with impunity, using the APC as an example.
According to him, save for the stoic resistance put up by Modu-Sheriff against those who wanted him out, the APC would have followed suit in removing its own national chairman, John Odigie-Oyegun who came under fire recently and was almost thrown out of office through internal wrangling.
Read more at http://independentnig.com/pdp-crisis-we-wont-go-to-scourt-if-we-lose-appeal-sheriff/#6Wfci2ZHxD47uFV6.99
