PDP crisis: Watch your word, Sheriff warns Makarfi

THE National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Ali Sheriff, has warned his rival and Chairman of the National Caretaker Committee (NCC) of the party, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, to refrain from speaking ill about him.

Speaking while receiving PDP members from Zamfara State at the party national headquarters in Abuja on Wednesday, he advised Makarfi to behave himself and stop talking about him all the time.
His warning followed the allegation by the NCC the Sheriff was intent on selecting his cronies to conduct a national convention with the aim of using them to clinch the 2019 presidential ticket of the party.

Sheriff had on Monday declared that God would decide for him whether or not to contest the 2019 presidential election under the PDP.

But while speaking with party members from Zamfara, the former Borno State governor remarked that Makarfi became governor of Kaduna because “it is the will of God. He is never better than every other person.”
He added: “I am not an ambitious person like some of my friends. One of the newspapers said Sheriff wants to do convention because he wants to become president. President of Nigeria is decided by God and the people.

“Whenever people lack confidence in themselves, they don’t believe in will of God. I have called him this (Wednesday) morning. It is will of God. I want to sincerely request Makarfi to watch his words. I don’t believe that anyone of us here have the powers of God.”

He further said: “I am here to prepare PDP and give it to the grassroots. I am here to conduct credible convention. For God sake, I don’t fear anybody. The only thing I fear is Allah.
“Whatever I do, I am mindful of whether I have fulfilled my obligation to Allah. I want to tell him today that he should behave. He and I are two different persons. Sheriff and Makarfi can never be the same person.

“Face your business and stop writing the name of Sheriff every time. Go and appeal to Nigerians for what you want if they accept fine and good.”
Sheriff blamed the current crisis in the party on past impunity, noting: “People in the grassroots must have their say and elect their leader by themselves. That is what has killed PDP and this must stop.”

Noting that the people from Zamfara were clearly from the grassroots, he added: “They are not urban dwellers or masquerades.”
The leader of the Zamfara delegation, a former PDP governorship aspirant in the state, Ibrahim Shehu Gusau, said they were in Abuja to show our happiness that you (Sheriff) are chairman of the party. The turbulent has subsided reality has come to stay.”