As different interest groups and individuals battle for the soul of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, a former Deputy National Chairman of the party, Chief Bode George, has advised the national chairman of the party, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, to abide by the party rules by stepping down on May 21.
He gave the advice amid speculations that Mr. Sheriff, whose emergence as national chairman of the party almost buried whatever remained of the former ruling party, was angling to continue in office after his three-month tenure ends in May.
Our correspondent reports that a new national chairman of the PDP is expected to be elected at the party’s national convention scheduled for May 21 in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
But it was learnt that high-wired political calculations by those who imposed the former Borno State governor on the party are ongoing to use the convention to ratify tenure elongation for Mr. Sheriff, multi-billionaire, who has reportedly been using his personal funds to run the party since his appointment in February.
However, George in a statement titled, ‘Our Party at the Crossroads’, which he personally signed, asked the PDP chairman to step down on the agreed date.
The leader of the PDP in Lagos State, who insisted that he was not eyeing any position in the party, said the only way the party could defeat the All Progressives Congress in 2019 was by getting things right.
According to him, the PDP will remain in the opposition if it fails to get its act right.
“I want to believe the chairman is an honourable man. He must honour his word to handover to an elected chairman at the National Convention on May 21 this year. This is the only way he will be on the positive side of history”, he said.
George, who is a member of the party’s Board of Trustees, said it was funny that all those who contributed to the party’s defeat in the last elections had all fled the country.
