Despite denial, Dokpesi insists APDA was Makarfi’s plan B

A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ‎Raymond Dokpesi, has insisted that the National Caretaker Committee Chairman of the Party, Senator Ahmed Makarfi was the brain behind the floating of Advanced Peoples Democratic Alliance (APDA)

According to Dokpesi, following the crisis that existed between the ousted national chairman of the PDP, Senator Ali-Modu Sheriff and Makarfi-led NCC, the latter had set up APDA as a “plan B for the PDP,” in an event Sheriff emerged victorious at the Supreme Court.

Recall that Makarfi had earlier denied the insinuation that he was the one behind APDA and claimed he and those with him had no business with the setting up of the new party.

“If we planted APDA and then Sheriff’s people in some areas were moving to APDA; and it was Sheriff who was alleging that we did so, but it is now some of his people that have started moving there, so who did what?” Makarfi had claimed.

However Dokpesi who spoke to newsmen in Abuja on Wednesday about his chairmanship ambition, maintained that the Makarfi-led PDP set up APDA at the peak of the crisis that almost destroyed the party.

He said, “The national convention zoned the position of the national chairman to the South and zoned the presidency to the North. And there is no micro zoning; the convention would have said it is zoning to the South West, but the convention in its wisdom did not do so.

“I take full responsibility for the roles I played in the formation and funding of APDA. It was set up as a plan B for the PDP at the peak of its internal crisis. I said very clearly that I have a lot of respect for the elders of this party, I have a lot of respect for constituted authority, but they are human beings.”

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Dokpesi, who is emeritus chairman of DAAR Communications Plc, alongside a former chairman of the Labour Party (LP), Dan Nwanyawu, had in June floated APDA in order to oust the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2019 general elections

He however made a u-turn and returned to the PDP after the Supreme Court judgment sacked Sheriff and returned Makarfi as the PDP leader.

 

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