CHAIRMAN of the National Caretaker Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Ahmed Makarfi, has warned that if the National Chairman of the party, Senator Ali Sheriff is allowed to go on with the planned national convention of the party in June, it will be a recipe for more chaos.
He said the convention will go against the recent decision of the Court of Appeal which ordered a return to “status quo ante” before the botched May 21, 2016, Port Harcourt national convention.
Addressing a meeting of Northern PDP leaders in Abuja on Wednesday, he pointed out that the status quo ante meant that the tenure of three members of the PDP National Working Committee (NWC) will expire in August his year while that of 18 others will end June or July 2017.
He therefore warned that if the convention goes ahead, a few aggrieved persons may go back to court over the tenures and return the party to more crises.
Makarfi maintained that the only way to solve the present leadership crisis is to embrace the political solution advocated by former President Goodluck Jonathan and PDP governors which must see the leadership of both factions step aside and a legal document framed to prevent more court cases over the matter.
The former Kaduna State governor expressed sadness over the way Bayelsa State governor, Seriake Dickson, handled his reconciliation committee assignment, saying that that his recommendations will not augur well for the unity of the party.
Makarfi, who noted that his committee, as a creation of the organs of the party, is ready to accept whatever those organs come up with, said Dickson did not study the a Court of Appeal judgment before making his recommendations.
He said: “Dickson came to me. I was alone. He spoke to me saying that they were having committee meeting and he took time off to come and see me to brief me on the thing they were discussing.
“My first remark to him was that ‘Your Excellency, you are one of the governors that met with President Goodluck Jonathan and came out with a proposal, communicated to the National Assembly (caucus), communicated to the BoT, communicated us and also communicated to the other chairman of the party.
“‘Where is this one coming from? Are you removing yourself from that to create something new? Why didn’t you take what you have here before your colleagues governors and the former president?’
“I don’t want to go into what he said. He went on and on and I said ‘look, you are thinking of a convention in June, have you taken time to read the Port Harcourt Court of Appeal judgement.
“If you read that judgement, the judgment is based on two premises, which we do not accept and have appealed at the Supreme Court, and these two premises are that tenure of three officers will expire in August and tenure of 18 others will expire in June or July next year.
“So, if you do convention in June, what are you going to do? How could that convention be different from the convention in Port Harcourt? He (Dickson) said he didn’t think about that.”
Makarfi said since the Court of Appeal judgment ordered a status quo ante, all national officers that resigned May 21, 2016 must return to their offices.
He said if that is not the case, it means that there is no functional NWC for Sheriff to lead and therefore, whatever the former Borno State governor does now can be challenged in court and PDP will be thrown back again to the same vicious circle of litigation and reversal.”
In a surprise move, three key members of the Sheriff faction, including Senator Saidu Kumo, Senator Aruwan and Senator Abubakar Gada, showed up at the Northern Elders meeting convened by Professor Jerry Gana with Gada threatening scuttle the next phase of reconciliation.
The threat followed a remark by former minister, Adamu Waziri, who had observed that the three Sheriff supporters were “part of the brain and some distractive intelligence of the other side.”
Gada demanded a retraction of the allegation or else the reconciliation could be declared over.
The former minister announced his retraction of the statement and the drama was nipped in the bud.
In his opening remark, Professor Gana explained that the purpose of the meeting was to make sure Northern PDP leaders maintained solidarity.
Among prominent northern politicians present at the meeting were former governors Ibrahim Idris, Boni Haruna, Babangida Aliyu, Jonah Jang, Attahiru Bafarawa, and Ahmed Shekarau; as well Gen. David Jemibewon, Hajia Inna Ciroma and Hajia Zainab Maina, etc.