Jonathan did not endorse Sheriff – Aide

The office of former President Goodluck Jonathan has refuted reports that he endorsed Senator Ali Modu Sheriff as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) national chairman.

A statement released by Dr. Jonathan’s media aide, Ikechukwu Eze on Tuesday, described the reported endorsement as mischievous and cautioned newsmen to ensure accurate and constructive reportage.

Dr. Jonathan was reported to have referred to Sheriff as “my chair” when the former senator, who was declared authentic leader of the PDP by a Court of Appeal sitting in Port Harcourt, paid him a courtesy visit at his residence in Abuja.

But reacting to the claim, Eze said that the issue of endorsement never came up in the course of Sheriff’s visit either “at the closed door meeting with Sheriff nor during the former president’s interview with newsmen.”

According to Eze, Dr. Jonathan only received Sheriff and his supporters to his home as a former president and foremost leader of the party as part of the “mediation role he is playing towards unifying and strengthening the PDP.”

He said that Dr. Jonathan also opened his doors to Senator Ahmed Makarfi and the PDP Board of Trustees chairman, Senator Walid Jubril who also visited him later in the day after Sheriff and his supporters left.

He added that the former president will continue to broker more talks with the two factions until the issues in the leadership of the PDP were finally resolved.

He continued, “In deed, it may interest you to know that after meeting with Sheriff, the former President also met with Senator Ahmed Makarfi, leader of the PDP Caretaker Committee, and the party’s Board of Trustees chairman, Senator Walid Jubril, later in the evening.

“As a peace-loving leader of the party, the former President’s interest is to help reposition PDP to enable it play a constructive role in the affairs of the nation, in view of the imperative of deepening the nation’s democracy.

Read also: Ex-President Jonathan ‘endorses’ Sheriff as PDP chairman?

“I wish to let those spinning this falsehood know that it just doesn’t add up to fly a contrived banner of endorsement in one breath, and in another, concede that the former President explained his commitment in meeting with different interest groups, towards resolving the differences in the party”.

He quoted Jonathan to have said during the visit, “We (PDP) are not factionalised. We are one. We are solving our problems. There are bound to be differences in politics. It is the way we resolve these differences that make us human beings and that is what makes us leaders.

“I have met with Sheriff. And I have met with others. I will still meet with others, so that we will be able to do what is expected of us as a political party.”

Despite the Court of Appeal declaration of Sheriff as the authentic national chairman of the PDP, the leadership struggle rocking the party is yet to be over as Makarfi has vowed to challenge the ruling at the Supreme Court.

 

 

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