The Senator Ali Modu Sheriff faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has rejected the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT) recommendations on its next national convention and resolution of its leadership crisis.
This is contained in a statement by the faction’s Ag. Deputy National Chairman, Dr Cairo Ojougboh, on Tuesday in Abuja.
The BoT had in a communiqué after its meeting on Monday in Abuja advised the National Caretaker Committee of the party to hold the next national convention in Abuja, with a new convention planning committee.
According to it, to ensure a credible, transparent, free and fair convention, a new convention planning committee should be constituted by the National Caretaker Committee and approved by National Executive Committee (NEC).
It also said that the BoT would facilitate the raising of adequate funds for the party’s activities, including the convention.
The trustee passed a vote of confidence on the caretaker committee, and charged it to, as soon as possible, convene a meeting of the NEC of the party.
But, Sheriff’s group said that the outcome of the BoT Monday’s meeting fell short of its earlier decision with party’s reconciliation committee.
“Having deliberated on the reported outcome of the BoT meeting of Aug. 29, we have resolved that the resolutions fell short of the decision reached with the Dickson/Mantu reconciliation committee.
“The agreement we had is that Sheriff should chair a National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting where Makarfi will attend as a member of the BoT.
“At the meeting, a chairman of convention committee will be agreed upon, a new convention committee setup, including all other sub-committees, zoning, finance, accreditation, etc.
“The venue of the convention will be in Abuja, where a new leadership of the party will emerge, internal democracy will be respected and confidence will return to the party,’’ the group said.
It said that it had hoped that opportunity would be given for everybody to return to the one umbrella “and shake hands and will see the PDP re-emerge for the challenges ahead’’.
The group added that it “completely rejects the vote of confidence passed on the `illegal caretaker committee’ because a committee that has failed twice to successfully organize a convention on two occasion is a failure’’.
“Consequently, we can now confidently inform the general public that well-meaning Nigerians have been urging Sen. Makarfi to resign to save democracy.
“We, therefore, call on his friends and associates and family to advice him to do the needful and resign now to save multi-party democracy in Nigeria and stop impunity that has been the bane of internal democracy,’’ the group stated.
It alleged that the BoT Chairman, Sen. Walid Jubrin, brought crisis to the party.
“ In any case, his tenure has expired as he has spent more than 10 years as secretary and chairman of BoT, which runs contrary to the Constitution.
“A party where we have eminently qualified persons like Sen. David Mark, Babangida Aliyu and others, cannot be led by individuals controlled by the love for money.
“The source of irritation in the party is the still-born illegal caretaker committee and the Board of Trustees should have advised that the illegality be addressed,’’ it said.
The faction commended PDP supporters nationwide for their understanding and patience, adding that “we make bold to state that until we get it right and check impunity, the Nigerian opposition party won’t perform as required.
“As we move towards reconciliation, PDP should prevent any person or group from hijacking the party.
“Be rest assured that the PDP will emerge stronger as we note that impunity marred the party’s success in 2015 general elections,’’ it added.
Contacted, BoT Chairman, Jubrin, declined comment, saying that he was in a meeting.
