PDP crisis: Sheriff inaugurates factional excos in Rivers, Plateau, urges governors to shun corruption, wickedness, greed, impunity

The Senator Ali Modu Sheriff-led faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has advised PDP governors to shun corruption, wickedness, greed and impunity.
Sheriff, who was represented by his National Deputy Chairman, Dr Cairo Ojougboh, gave the advice at a news conference and inauguration of factional PDP Rivers and Plateau chapter executives, on Friday in Abuja.
Sheriff said that it was corruption, wickedness, greed and impunity that made PDP an opposition party.
“It has been brought to our notice that a governor the South-South described Sheriff-led National Working Committee (NWC) as spoilers.
“The truth is that we “spoil” impunity. We “spoil” imposition.
We “spoil” corruption and greed and we “spoil” wickedness, innate wickedness to fellow party fractals.
“We, therefore, call on our state governors to shun corruption, wickedness, greed and impunity which brought us to where we are today.
“Recall that in 2015 general elections, we lost elections in 10 states where we had governors in the North due to impunity,’’ Sheriff said.
The states, according to him, are: Benue, Kogi, Niger, Jigawa, Plateau, Kaduna, Katsina, Kebbi, Bauchi and Adamawa.
He disclosed that the party’s Constitution Review Committee, chaired by Mr Bernard Mikko in conjunction with the Peoples Democratic Institute (PDI), had submitted its report on the PDP constitutional amendment.
Sheriff said that the committee in its report gave three recommendations in addition to the amendments approved by the PDP National Executive Council (NEC) in May.
The recommendations according to him is that, “Presidents and Governors produced by the party, after their second tenure and eight years in office, should be barred from adopting candidates to succeed them.
“National Chairmen and party chairmen and executives from wards, local governments, state and national should be barred from adopting candidates.
‘’Any candidate so adopted shall be disqualified.’’
“The commission also recommended that since elected Presidents, National Assembly members and governors were allowed to re-contest their positions while in office, elected party officers should also be allowed to contest while in office.
`The idea is to strengthen the party and make the party supreme.’’
Sheriff added that the committee also recommended that, ‘’All serving and former members of National Assembly who are still members of the party should be statutory or automatic delegates to the National Conventions.’’
The recommendations according to him will be presented to the NEC in its next meeting.
He, however, called on party members that had left to return assuring them that the National Working Committee of the party was making all necessary arrangements to reposition PDP.
“We are not going to allow our party to die. ‘’We therefore will not submit our registration certificate to INEC in order to form another party,’’ he said.
Sheriff expressed optimism that PDP would win the Saturday Rivers re-run election.
Mr Silva Opusunju, the Chairman of Rivers chapter for the faction, while responding, pledged that states executive would do their best to reposition PDP in their respective state.