A factional National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, has rejected the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT) proposal for a truce, stressing that the Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led National Caretaker Committee must be disbanded.
He also insisted that the tenure of the BoT Chairman, Senator Walid Jibrin, has expired and accused him of bringing crisis into the party.
Sheriff said that Jibrin should vacate his office for a new leadership of the board to be constituted.
The factional chairman was reacting to the communique issued by the BoT at the end of its meeting at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Center in Abuja on Monday.
RELATED POST: National Convention: PDP BoT Seeks Wike’s Removal As Chair Of Planning C’ttee
The BoT had in the communique, asked Makarfi to organise a fresh national convention of the PDP in Abuja, call for an emergency National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting and constitute a fresh national convention planning committee involving Sheriff’s loyalists among others.
But the factional chairman told newsmen Tuesday, in Abuja, through the Deputy National Chairman of his faction, Dr. Cairo Ojougboh and his Special Adviser on Media, Inuwa Bwala, that the BoT proposals fell short of the decisions recently reached with the reconciliation committee headed by Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State and a former Deputy Senate President, Ibrahim Mantu.
“We completely reject the vote of confidence past on the illegal caretaker committee because a committee that has failed twice to successfully organize a convention on two occasions is a failure.
“We, therefore, call on his friends and associates and family to advise him to do the needful and resign now to save multi-party democracy in Nigeria and stop impunity that has been the bone of internal democracy.
“That the BoT chairman, Senator Walid Jibrin’s chairmanship has brought the crisis to the party. In any case, his tenure has expired as he has spent more than 10 years as Secretary and Chairman BoT which runs contrary to the Constitution”, he said.
“A party where we have imminently qualified persons like Senator David Mark, Babangida Aliyu and others cannot be led by unstable individuals controlled by the love for money.
“That 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”.
The Sheriff camp also demanded the immediate reconstitution of the BoT, stressing 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 the 2015 general elections”, the statement added.
