Worried by the turn of events in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) following the removal of Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the opposition party has raised a three-man team to meet with the sacked Acting National Chairman.
Sheriff is presently in court challenging his removal by PDP governors and other stakeholders during the recently held national convention of the party in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
The leadership crises between the sacked national chairman and the Ahmed Makarfi caretaker committee appointed during the convention, led to a takeover of the PDP national secretariat in Abuja by the police.
It was learnt that as a follow up to the meeting last week to try and reconcile Sheriff and Makarfi, the BOT agreed with the stakeholders to raise the three-man panel to avert the degenerating situation in the party.
Members of the panel are Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, former Education Minister Tunde Adeniran and House Minority Leader Leo Ogor.
According to a source in the party, the panel is expected to:
• prevail on Sheriff to be “a true party man” by placing the PDP above anything;
• implore Sheriff to withdraw all cases in court – in deference to the internal party mechanism for addressing such issues; and
• find amicable ways of resolving all pending issues.
The source said: “The three-man team will meet Sheriff in Abuja on Tuesday (Today) because if we go on like this, the PDP might not survive this crisis.
“We believe the panel can agree on workable solutions with Sheriff whose suits in court may draw PDP backward and tear it apart.
“We are hopeful that we will come out of this crisis stronger, if Sheriff cooperates with the panel”.
