• As Youth Group threatens takeover of as PDP crisis deepens

Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, yesterday accused All Progressives Congress, APC, of sponsoring Senator Ali Modu Sheriff to destroy and prevent it from reorganising itself. The party also indicted the police for protecting Sheriff, who took over its national secretariat on Monday and proclaimed himself acting national chairman. The accusation was made in Abuja by a member of the National Care 1taker Committee in charge of Publicity, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, while addressing newsmen.

Adeyeye said: “What we are however very certain about is that Sheriff and his fellow renegades are being used by the enemies of the PDP to destroy the party and to prevent it from reorganising itself, so as to provide a credible opposition and alternative platform for the forthcoming Edo State gubernatorial election and 2019 elections.

“The All progressives Congress, APC, has contracted Sheriff and his cohorts to scuttle the chances of the PDP in the Edo governorship elections. “We have credible intelligence that Sheriff had a meeting on Sunday night with an APC governor from North West, where it was agreed that he would be given full security and financial support to exacerbate the crisis in the PDP with the objective of preventing the party from presenting a candidate for the Edo governorship elections, or in the very least, to prevent the PDP from offering a serious challenge to APC whose electoral fortunes has continued to nose-dive.”

Adeyeye also wondered why police allowed Sheriff and the hundreds of suspected thugs that accompanied him to have access to the party’s secretariat without arresting them. According to him, 99.99 per cent of the party membership has rejected Sheriff.

“While we are still trying to understand the role of the police in the entire saga, it is curious that the police made no arrest of the thugs who openly brandished various dangerous weapons in and around the premises of the secretariat in full glare of the police. “It is also curious that the police claimed to be acting on ‘orders from above’ in allowing Sheriff and his cohorts to gain entry into the secretariat.

If we may ask, who is the authority that issued the orders from above? ”The entire stakeholders of the party, including governors, National Assembly members, Board of Trustees, BOT, members and others were at the party secretariat last week to usher in members of the National Caretaker Committee.

“Immediate past members of the National Working Committee, NWC, except the trio of Sheriff, Oladipo and Adeyanju were also on hand to hand over to the National Caretaker Committee.

“The national caretaker committee is not distracted by the activities of the fifth columnists in the party. We remain very focused on the assignment and the mandate given to us at the National Convention held in Port Harcourt,” he said. Adeyeye also faulted Sheriff’s claims that he had court orders that empowered him to continue as national chairman of the party.

He said: “Despite his bravado, he did not display or make available the court orders to the gentlemen of the press. The truth of the matter is that Senator Sheriff has no court orders to back his claims.

“He and his cohorts continue to shop around to buy any court order at any price, but so far they have not succeeded, thanks to the vigilance and integrity of the judiciary.” Governors elected on the platform of the party, members of the BoT and National Assembly caucus would today meet to address the latest development. Other stakeholders expected at the meeting holding at Ondo Governor’s Lodge, Abuja are former governors of the party and former principals of the National Assembly.

The PDP Governors’ Forum, in a statement by its Director General, Osaro Onaiwu, said the purpose of the meeting was to find a lasting solution to the current crisis. He, however, pointed out that the party would have no other option than to go to court, if all efforts to address the situation failed.

Meanwhile, Caretaker Committee Chairman, Ahmed Makarfi, yesterday reaffirmed that he was still firmly in charge of the affairs of the party. The former Kaduna State governor, while reacting to online media reports that he had differed to Sheriff, told newsmen at his residence in Abuja that the party was willing to dialogue with the former chairman and his faction. Earlier, the former Vice National Chairman, South South, Cairo Ojougboh, told newsmen that Makarfi had resigned from his office to allow Sheriff assume the leadership of the party. But Makarfi said: “I really don’t know why they are spreading falsehood.

All said and done, I still believe that the path towards resolving political problem is dialogue, accommodation and I am open to that. “But as I am open to dialogue, accommodation so that we become one strong united family once again, but it is very, very unfair to make a fraudulent statement that there is a document purported to have been issued by me.

“That never, ever happened and I never even dreamt about it not to talk of issuing it.” While denying holding any meeting with Sheriff, the caretaker committee chairman added: “I saw him at the convention of course, but I haven’t sat privately with Modu Sheriff in the last three months, or anybody representing him, not to talk of me making such a statement.

“I haven’t granted any press statement. If that is the case, how can it be that the only statement I would make is to apologise to him and express support for him? There is no basis for that, absolutely no basis for that.

“This is what we are trying to get rid of from PDP. And all the so called court orders, judgments being bandied about aren’t really true.

“We know what the courts have said. The court never stopped any convention; of course it said, do not elect and we didn’t elect and the order which was said to be vacated and that’s the Port Harcourt court order hasn’t been vacated and the IGP and INEC till today said it is an existing order.”

In the meantime, a coalition of youth groups within the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has given leaders of the party seven days to resolve all pending issues relating to the ongoing crisis in the party or they would takeover.

Briefing journalists at the end of their meeting Tuesday, at the Wadata Plaza National Secretariat of the party, the chairman of the group, Aderemi Olusegun, said they were saddened by the “unabated internal wrangling” besetting the party.
He said as concerned youth, they found it necessary to come together to take a firm position in the interest of PDP members nationwide.

Mr. Aderemi said the youth had waited enough for the party’s leaders since the Port Harcourt convention to amicably resolve the lingering problem of leadership.
“We are giving the leadership of the party (which includes the BOT, Governors’ Forum, warring groups and other stakeholders) a 7-day ultimatum to resolve this intractable but avoidable rancour.
“However, if this is not resolved, we shall be compelled to mobilize all concerned youths nationwide to take over the affairs of the party, as we have started putting in place an effective structure to take over the party secretariat,” he said.

Mr. Aderemi said the PDP as a party is bigger than individuals and groups, adding that they youth had resolved to “henceforth not tolerate anyone to take the party for a ride”.
“We are therefore demanding the immediate withdrawal of all pending litigations in the court of law, so that we can amicably resolve all issues,” he said
The PDP youth also said it was sad for the leaders of the party not to consider the effect of their actions on the forthcoming governorship elections in Edo and Ondo States, which, they said, were likely to affect the fortune of the party.

“Our party members world over are seriously disillusioned and unhappy.
“We have therefore constituted an 11-man committee to liaise with all the parties concerned and stakeholders so as a matter of urgency resolve all disagreements in our party.
“We shall be making further demands known to all the stakeholders in order to reposition our party as a viable alternative for all Nigerians,” the youth said.

The PDP has been embroiled in crisis since May 21 when different factions emerged at two simultaneous national conventions in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, and Abuja.
The party’s national chairman, Ali Sheriff, had announced the cancellation of the Port Harcourt convention citing court orders.
However, PDP governors and the BoT, went ahead to carry out the convention and announced the sack of Mr. Sheriff and all members of his working committee.
The convention also announced the composition of a caretaker committee to be headed by former governor of Kaduna state, Ahmed Makarfi.

At the Abuja convention, former deputy Senate President, Ibrahim Mantu, was announced the new chairman of the party.
The BoT and the Mantu group eventually recognized the leadership of Mr.Makarfi, but, Mr. Sheriff insists he remains the chairman of the party.

While Mr. Makarfi formally resumed duties last week, Mr. Sheriff on Monday led hundreds of his supporters and invaded the national secretariat of the party saying a court in Lagos had already confirmed him as chairman until 2018.

National Mirror with additional report from Upshot