Gov Dickson wants Makarfi to resign as solution to PDP crisis

Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State has proffered a solution to end the leadership crisis bedeviling the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Dickson, who is also the Chairman of the PDP Reconciliation Committee, called on the Sen. Ahmed Makarfi-led Caretaker Committee to relinquish their position and step aside for Sen Ali Modu Sheriff to take full control of the party.

He made the call while speaking to newsmen in Abuja on Sunday, adding, that it was time for all the chieftains and elders of the party to impress it on the caretaker committee to cede its authority to the Sheriff-led leadership.

He noted that though he was among those initially opposed to Sheriff running the party’s affairs, there is the need to do a rethink due to the ruling of the Port Harcourt Appeal Court.

“When the idea of making Sheriff the National Chairman of our party was hatched, I personally kicked against it.

“I also turned down all the overtures from Sheriff because I did not believe in him and what he did.

“So now, my position is that we have to move forward. I am a politician of conviction, I am not a politician of convenience and I am not a typical Nigerian politician,’’ Dickson said.

He continued that “The Makarfi – led caretaker committee should remember that it was a brain child of the majority of party members including I at a convention in Port Harcourt.

“I and up to 80 per cent of the population of the PDP members were for Makarfi but the unfolding events have compelled us to adopt a political resolution instead of embarking on further bickering.

“As politicians and democrats, we must first obey the constitution and all other instruments of civil rule and which includes obeying the judiciary,’’ he said.

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He also said: “We had expected that the Court of Appeal would give us judgment, but it rather upheld Sheriff as the National Chairman of the party.

“Whether anybody likes Sheriff’s face or not, the Makarfi-led caretaker committee was stripped of its authority to manage the affairs of the party the day the judgment was delivered.

“It was in the spirit to honour the court’s pronouncement that the party’s reconciliation committee that I chair submitted its report on how we shall move forward to Sheriff.

“In fact, as it stands now, Sheriff has started addressing issues within the party, he is the one sending names of party members contesting elections in various states.

“If there is going to be a by-election in Kaduna today, Makarfi’s home state, INEC would not accept correspondences from Makarfi any longer because his business in the party has ended,’’ Dickson said.

According to him, a political solution is the way to go now, pending when the Supreme Court will deliver judgment on the appeal filed by Makarfi.

“So the reconciliation committee which I chair met several times to review our position in the light of the Court of Appeal’s judgment.

“The reality is that Makarfi no longer has the legal backing to carry on with the task of managing the party.

“We are aware of this quagmire, and therefore, the reconciliation committee went ahead to formulate a realistic, practical and strategic response to this reality because in the end it would be to the benefit of PDP,’’ Dickson said

He further lamented, that “The crisis has caused us a lot, our elected officials, top notch members are decamping to even lesser parties.

“The party continues to fail Nigerians because the crisis has so far prevented it from being a sound credible opposition even in the face of bad governance in the country right now,” he said.

 

 

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