Why they call me a spoiler – Sheriff

• Inaugurates Rivers, Plateau factional excos

CLAIMANT to the office of the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, on Friday asserted that he is regarded as a spoiler because of his tendency to fight against internal wrongdoings in the party.

Addressing a press conference in Abuja, he also said that he is against the formation of another political party as there is no guarantee that if the present PDP gives up its certificate of registration, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will agree to register a new party.

Therefore, while encouraging all those who have left the PDP to return, he said his leadership would rebuild the party and return it to the grassroots.

Sheriff, who was reacting to his labelling as “a spoiler” by an unnamed governor from South-South, spoke through his faction’s Deputy National Chairman, Dr Cairo Ojougboh.

He said: “It has been brought to our notice that a governor of the South South described the Sen Sheriff led NWC as spoilers.

“The truth is that we ‘spoil’ impunity. We ‘spoil’ imposition. We ‘spoil’ corruption and greed and we ‘spoil’ wickedness, innate wickedness to fellow party faithful.

“We therefore call on our state governors to shun corruption, wickedness, greed and impunity, which brought us to where we are today.

“Recall that in 2015 general elections, we lost elections in 10 states where we had governors in the North due to impunity. The states are: Benue, Kogi, Niger, Jigawa, Plateau, Kaduna, Katsina, Kebbi, Bauchi and Adamawa.

“We in the NWC are making all necessary arrangements to reposition our great. We intend to return the party to the original owners, the grass roots.

“We encourage those who left the party to return. We are not going to allow our party to die. We therefore will not submit our registration certificate to INEC in order to form another party.

“The politics of yesterday is very different from that of today. There is no guarantee that today’s INEC will register you once you give up your certificate. So, our task is to rebuild and reposition the party.”

Sheriff said his faction was backing the candidates of the PDP in Saturday’s rerun election in Rivers State as he noted that they were not sponsored by individuals but by the PDP.

He said his leadership would work with Governor Nyesom Wike, who is loyal to the Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led National Caretaker Committee of the party, to ensure that PDP is victorious in the election.

He however blamed the National Caretaker Committee for the breakdown in the effort to reconcile both factions of the party.

The factional National Chairman inaugurated a new Interim state leadership for Rivers State as well as the state executive committee of the Plateau state chapter of the party.