Sheriff adamant, says I remain PDP nat’l chairman

The crisis within the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, may be far from over, as the camp of sacked national chairman, Ali Modu Sheriff, Tuesday, insisted he remains the National Chairman of the party.

This is despite the handing over of the party and secretariat to the Ahmed Makarfi led Caretaker Committee by former Deputy National Chairman, Uche Secondus and BoT chairman, Senator Walid Jibrin.

This is just as the sacked National Secretary, Professor Wale Oladipo and Deputy National Legal Adviser of the party, Bashir Maidugu, insisted that the caretaker committee remains illegal and lacks the powers to run the affairs of the PDP. They also hinted on moves to institute contempt charges against the  Makarfi-committee.

It would be recalled that Sheriff, Oladipo and National Auditor Alhaji Fatai Adeyanju had obtained an order of interlocutory injunction restraining PDP from conducting any election into the offices of the national chairman, national secretary and national auditor which they occupy, pending the hearing and determination of their substantive suit pending before Justice Ibrahim Buba.

Sheriff, in a statement on Tuesday by his Special Adviser on Media, Inuwa Bwala, said: “Our attention has been drawn to the activities at the National secretariat of the PDP to the effect that some individuals masquerading as leaders have handed over to Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi under a contraption called ‘caretaker committee’.

“We state as a matter of fact that going by proceedings still pending in the courts to the effect that Senator Ali Sheriff remains the National Chairman, whatever transpired was null, void and of no effect whatsoever.

“Sheriff has not mandated anybody, nor was his authority obtained by Uche Secondus, who has been parading himself as acting on behalf of the National Chairman.

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“While we await the verdicts of the courts, we wish to state that Senator Ali Modu Sheriff is and remains the National Chairman of the party, until otherwise declared by the courts.

“We allowed the charade to go on at the secretariat without any form of challenge in strict obedience to careful pronouncement on the matter, but we must also state that there is no gathering of groups or individuals, however powerful, such groups or individuals may be, that can be said to take precedence over the law.

“For the avoidance of doubts, we state categorically that what took place at the PDP secretariat on Tuesday June 7, 2016 was a total disregard to court orders and an extension of the impunity for which the party has been accused of and which has taken the party to where it is today. The public should disregard all the actions and pronouncements.”

Similarly, Prof. Oladipo, in a statement on Tuesday, described the caretaker committee as a group of lawbreakers, adding that it was very wrong for the committee to take over PDP’s headquarters.

On his part, Maidugu said the caretaker committee was acting in defiance of subsisting court orders.

“The Makarfi committee is simply illegal. It was constituted in violation of the two high court rulings,” he said.

 

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