Supreme Court verdict: Dickson urges Sheriff to support Makarfi

Following the Supreme Court judgement on the leadership crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Governor of Bayelsa State, Hon. Henry Seriake Dickson, has called on the former national Chairman of the party, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, and his supporters to team up with the Senator Ahmed Makarfi –led National Caretaker Committee of the party to move the PDP forward.  
The governor, who is also the Chairman of the National Reconciliation Committee of the party, said the apex court judgement produced no victor, no vanquished and called on the contending forces to see it as such.
To this end, Dickson advised the Makarfi-led National Caretaker Committee and all leaders of the party to deliberately and ‘‘consistently pursue true and genuine reconciliation of all contending parties in the party with the view to organising an all-inclusive National Unity Convention to select the national leadership of PDP. ‘’
According to a statement on Saturday in Yenagoa by the Governor’s Special Adviser on Media Relations, Francis Agbo, the governor believes true reconciliation and a national Unity Convention would build confidence in the party as well as ‘‘endear Nigerians to PDP and persuade those who had defected from our great party to return to PDP ahead of 2019.’’
While stressing that the judiciary only adjudicates on matters but never reconciles contending parties, Dickson said now that the Supreme Court has delivered the much expected judgement, the PDP must now reconcile and truly put its house in order to effectively play its role as the leading opposition party in Nigeria.
Dickson, who is also the Chairman of the National Reconciliation Committee, enjoined all PDP faithful and leaders to respect the judgement of the Supreme Court as the final arbiter by cooperating with the National Caretaker Committee to deliver reconciliation and an acceptable Unity National Convention within the shortest possible time frame.
The statement reads in part: ‘‘I call on Senator Ali Modu Sheriff and his supporters and all contending parties in our great party, PDP to respect the verdict of the Supreme Court as the final arbiter. I urge all contending parties in the PDP to embrace peace and genuine reconciliation and  support the Senator Ahmed Makarfi –led Caretaker Committee of our party with a view to organizing an all- inclusive National Unity Convention . Without such support, genuine reconciliation cannot take place; without such support, the Caretaker Committee will have a herculean task organizing an acceptable convention, without genuine reconciliation, the party cannot move forward…’’
Dickson noted that the prolonged PDP leadership crisis was unnecessary in the first place, and believed that the PDP leaders had learnt their lessons, hoping that the PDP leadership would put in place measures to forestall re-occurrence of the needles crisis and litigations.