Sheriff: General without soldiers in PDP —Fayose

Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose, has described a factional National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Ali Modu 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.

Speaking on a television programme on Tuesday, the governor said apart from Markafi having more members, the calibre of people posing as Sheriff’s supporters are “political nonentities.”

In a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Idowu Adelusi, Fayose, who is also the Chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum, 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 are 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 chose 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.

He said it was through Sheriff’s activities that the PDP lost the Ondo and Edo governorship polls.

He, however, gave the assurance that such tricks would not work in Ekiti State.