The embattled National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Ali Modu Sheriff, has expressed fears that the leadership crisis that currently engulfs the party could drag till the 2019 general elections.
He has therefore called on the party’s caretaker committee chairman, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, and the governors elected on the party’s platform to join hands with him in bringing an end to the crisis.
Speaking in Abuja through his National Deputy Chairman, Dr. Cairo Ojougboh, the chairman said the various court cases instituted by the various groups could rob the party of the opportunity to present a common front for the 2019 general elections.
He described the party’s governors as the most vulnerable should the crisis continue, stressing that they could lose the opportunity of re-election if the crisis persists.
Ojougboh said: “I appeal to governors and elders of the party to join hands with me in moving the party forward. We need to find political solution to this crisis because the pending court cases could drag till 2019.
“We should be able to sit together and look at the problem dispassionately. The Port Harcourt convention was illegal, so the caretaker committee is null and void.
“Sheriff is ready and willing to make peace, but we must be ready to obey the rule of law and respect internal democracy. He is ready to hand over any day, but he is not prepared to be stampeded out of office.”
The party chief noted that the crisis in the PDP is all about the 2019 presidential ticket, which he said has set different groups and interests against one another.
Insisting that the courts cannot solve the party’s crisis, Ojougboh said Sheriff was ready to organise a proper convention to elect a new set of national officers to run the affairs of the party.
He called on the governors and the party elders to formally dissolve the caretaker committee to enable the PDP make progress.
“The PDP under Sheriff will not rely on government or governors to fund its activities because members will be made to pay their dues and a system of accountability will ensure the judicious use of the funds”, the party chief added.
Ojougboh described the awaited July 4 judgment by a court in Port Harcourt as a mere academic exercise, declaring that the June 30 ruling by another Abuja court had rendered the pending Port Harcourt ruling ineffectual.
