I’ll take PDP back to the grassroots ― Sheriff

The factional national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, has vowed to return the party to the grassroots towards its progress.

He said this while addressing the expanded South West of the party held on Sunday at the headquarters of Omo Ilu Foundation in Ijebu-Igbo, that he is battle ready to stand in the way of anyone that might want to subdued the party.

Sheriff explained that the party would not condone any act of indiscipline that would further polarized it.

Addressing the meeting, the deputy chairman of PDP Reconciliation Committee, Alhaji Ibrahim Mantu, explained that the lingering crisis in the party could be attributed to lack of internal democracy, imposition of candidates and impunity of some individuals within PDP.

The former deputy Senate President said that the national leadership of the party is doing its best in rebranding the party, submitting that the party had destroyed the goodwill it enjoyed for 16 years.

Mantu urged leaders of the party to shelve personal interests and work towards mending the cracks in the party.

Mantu added, “The national leadership is doing its very best to rebrand and reposition our party positively before the Nigerian public in readiness for 2019.

“In spite of the crack in the family, the leadership is moving steadily in the right direction -encouraging mass participation of members in the activities of the party, thereby giving them sense of belonging.”

Mantu appealed to leaders of the party to bury their differences ahead of the 2019 general elections.

“All hands must be on deck to ensure total victory in the entire South West and Nigeria in 2019. The tongue and the teeth live inside the mouth and they do sometime clash but none vacates the mouth for the other. We must therefore not allow seeming differences affect our victory at the polls.

“Our detractors had expected the crack in the family to be the beginning of our end. Tell them that the lion was just sleeping in order to conserve more energy and make a minced meat of them in 2019. No matter how much weight an elephant loses, it can never be compared to a cow,” Mantu said.

In attendance, Senator Buruji Kashamu, Dr. Cairo Ojugbo, acting national publicity secretary, Hon. Bernard Niko, former Federal Capital Territory Minister, Alhaji Mohammed Abba Gana, Senator Chris Anyanwu and leadership of the party from Oyo, Osun, Ekiti, Lagos, Ondo and Ogun states.

The national vice-chairman/zonal chairman, PDP South West, Chief Makanjuola Ogundipe, while reading the communique at the end of the meeting, passed a vote of confidence on Sheriff as the national chairman of the party to reposition the party.

The party prayed for the quick recovery of President Muhammadu Buhari.