Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State has continued his attacks on Senator Ali Modu Sheriff after the Court of Appeal declared that Sheriff was the authentic national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and said his activities cost the PDP the elections in Edo and Ondo states.
This is just as he described Sheriff as “a general without soldiers in the party,” and challenged Sheriff to go for a popularity test with his main contender, Senator Ahmed Markafi.
Fayose, who is the chairman of the PDP Governors Forum, said in a statement on Tuesday that “it was through Sheriff’s activities that the PDP lost the Ondo and Edo governorship polls but I can assure that such tricks would not work in Ekiti State.”
The governor said apart from Markafi having more members, the calibre of people posing as Sheriff’s supporters are political paperweights, noted that the who-is-who in the PDP were solidly behind Markafi.
“Senator Ali Modu Sheriff is a general without soldiers not to talk of having a battalion. If he is sure of his stand and strength, let him go for a popularity contest with Senator Ahmed Markafi. Apart from the fact that most of the PDP members are with Markafi, let Nigerians check out the calibre of people supporting them.
“Without any gain saying, Markafi is high above Sheriff. Markafi has the state governors supporting him. The National Assembly caucus is backing Markafi. Former ministers, former governors, former members of the National Assembly are also in support of Markafi.
“In quantity and quality of support, Markafi is shoulder high above Sheriff who is only deluding himself with the rent-a-crowd politicians that he goes to town with. All the organs of the party, including the Board of Trustees, are firmly behind Markafi,” he said.
Reacting to a question on last week’s Court of Appeal judgment that favoured Sheriff in the leadership tussle, Fayose opined that truth would prevail at the end of the day.
”The court cannot choose our chairman for us. This issue is about democracy and the people. It is the PDP members that can decide who their leaders are. This they have demonstrated in the Port Harcourt convention that was done in accordance with the constitution of the party.
“The party’s leadership is the National Caretaker Committee headed by Senator Ahmed Markafi and it shall remain so until we do our convention to elect our leaders,” he added.
On the possibility of working with Sheriff, Fayose described Sheriff as a political poison that should be avoided.
Clarifying his initial support for Sheriff, the governor said he backed out of supporting him when he discovered Sheriff ulterior motives and discrepancies in his attitude.
“I don’t have regret supporting him abinitio, but when we discovered his discrepancies, I backed out. I saw that he is unfit, he is a pariah. Sheriff is an agent of the All Progressives Congress. He is a mole being used by the Federal Government to weaken and destabilise the PDP so that APC will not have any virile opposition,” the governor stressed.
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