Tag: PDP convention

IN the past one week, both democracy and the judiciary have been humiliated by the August 17 partially held Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) convention. Though the fight for the party is intense and convoluted, on the surface, two main combatants are struggling for the soul and body of the opposition party: Ali Modu Sheriff, a former Borno State governor and senator, and Ahmed Makarfi, also a former Kaduna State governor and senator. Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital seems to have become the improbable graveyard of the two top politicians. In February, the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) appointed Senator Sheriff as the acting national chairman and gave him a three-month mandate to organise the party’s convention in Port Harcourt.
By the time of the convention in May, it had become obvious to many chieftains that Senator Sheriff was surreptitiously working to transmute into the chairmanship post, a position a majority of party elders felt would undermine both their zoning arrangement and the quest to win the presidency in 2019. A dramatic coup d’etat was thus staged against him and his nose put out of joint. But Senator Sheriff is as intransigent as he is combative. He has refused to relinquish office despite the most pertinacious efforts of the party’s worried and angry elders. Since the collapse of the May convention and the appointment of the Senator Makarfi caretaker committee to organise another convention, hopefully to produce a south-westerner as party chairman, the party has been locked in a deadly power struggle, complete with conflicting judicial orders and police connivance and collusion.
Senator Sheriff may be reluctant to admit the obvious, but power has really departed from him. Not only can he not achieve his ambition of becoming the party’s chairman, whether in the short or long term, it is even no longer possible for him to organise any convention, no matter how modified or abridged, to produce the party’s chairman. He still has some support and the money to underwrite the headache he is giving party elders, and he still possesses a lot of energy to thwart the peace and progress of the party and its 2019 ambition, but other than his nuisance value, he is really no longer worth much regardless of his determination to fight to the bitter end. Sooner or later, he will cave in, perhaps after causing much grief.
Most party elders and even members are with Senator Makarfi; those in favour of Senator Sheriff are gradually becoming fewer. But as an indication of how powerful Senator Sheriff still is, last Wednesday’s convention meticulously organised and sanctioned by party elders also came to grief. Two conflicting court rulings by courts of coordinate jurisdictions and a conniving law enforcement agency are to blame. Justice Ibrahim Watila of the Federal High Court, Port Harcourt, early on Monday sanctioned the Makarfi-led convention and directed both the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the security agencies to offer recognition and protection. The interlocutory order secured by party chieftains was obviously pursuant to the July 4, 2016 ruling by the same court recognising the outcome of the impromptu but botched May 21 convention which produced the Senator Makarfi-led caretaker committee.
But some hours after the Senator Makarfi crowd secured the approval of Justice Watila, a conflicting judgement from Justice Victor Okon Abang of the Federal High Court, Abuja, gave a restraining order barring last Wednesday’s Port Harcourt convention. It was this order the police in Abuja claimed to have received. Stalemate ensued. The public was miffed, and the country became dismayed by the show of shame they claimed the judiciary displayed. But Justice Abang was also defending the judgement he gave on July 28 recognising Senator Sheriff as still the legitimate chairman of the PDP. He furiously denounced PDP chieftains who sneaked into Port Harcourt to obtain a judgement subverting the authority of his court. However, between June 29 and August 16, two High Courts have since sacked Senator Sheriff as PDP chairman.
In what must amount to a telling subversion of federalism, the police in Port Harcourt simply decided, apparently without any legal advice known to the public, which side to cleverly support. Asked whether what the police did didn’t amount to sealing the convention venue in Port Harcourt last Wednesday, police spokesman, Nnamdi Omoni, told the online medium, Premium Times: “Yes, we have (sealed off) the place. We are just obeying court instruction.” But a little later, when reporters asked the state police commissioner Francis Odesanya whether sealing the venue was not arbitrarily deciding which court order to obey, he said: “I did not seal off the convention venue. I was only providing security. I was only obeying a court order. It is not my duty to interpret court order.” Photographic proofs were, however, produced to show how tenaciously the stadium venue was sealed. It was clear the police did more than just providing security for the convention, considering that PDP delegates could not enter the stadium and had to relocate to another venue. More, it was also clear that the state police boss, contrary to earlier impression, had interpreted the court orders and chosen which court to obey.
Politicians may threaten democracy by their immature approach to disagreements and elections, and the judiciary may abet that subversion, but there is also no doubt that the law enforcement agencies are complicit in the ridicule to which democracy in Nigeria is being subjected.

The Rivers State Government is taking the police and the Department of State Services (DSS) to court for preventing the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from holding its much advertised national convention at the Sharks Stadium, Port Harcourt last Wednesday.

The police and the DSS sealed up the venue, citing possible breakdown of law and order. But host Governor, Nyesom Wike, and chairman of the convention planning committee yesterday faulted the law enforcement agencies’ action.

The governor said that the people only decided to allow the security agencies have their way out of respect for visitors from other states.

Inaugurating the Peace and Security Committee of the State, Governor Wike said that the state government had decided to seek judicial interpretation on whether the two agencies were right to get involved.

The governor warned against rigging during the forthcoming rerun elections in the state. He charged members of the Peace and Security Committee to work towards promoting security of lives and property within the ambit of the law.

Members of the Committee include the Commander of the NNS Pathfinder, representative of the Nigerian Army, Rivers State Police Commissioner, Director DSS, Comptroller of Prisons, Comptroller of Customs, Sector Commander of Federal Road Safety Corps, Comptroller of Immigration, Commander of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps and a representative of the State Traditional Council.

Responding on behalf of the Committee, Navy Commodore Obi Egbuchulam assured that the security agencies would work towards promoting peace in the state for businesses to thrive.

Six days to its National Convention in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, all is still not well with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Factional National Chairman Senator Ali Modu Sheriff yesterday asked that the convention be put on hold.

But, Caretaker Committee Chairman Senator Ahmed Makarfi said the convention would hold.

Sheriff also demanded that its venue be moved from Port Harcourt to Abuja on a yet to be agreed date.

He tabled his demands at a meeting with some members of the PDP Board of Trustees (BoT) Reconciliation Committee in Abuja on Tuesday night. The meeting ended in the wee hours of yesterday.

Sheriff also demanded the removal of Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike as  chairman of the Convention Planning Committee.

He also asked that the local government and ward congresses conducted by his group but cancelled by the Makarfi camp be upheld.

Leader of the reconciliation team Prof. Jerry Gana promised to take Sheriff’s message to the BoT in council.

The reconciliation team was raised by the BoT to prevail on Sheriff  to ensure that the party held the convention united.

At the meeting, Sheriff blamed the leaders and some members of the BoT for the “lingering crisis”.

According to him, the crisis would have been prevented if the BoT leadership and members had been alive to their responsibilities.

He said: “If our leaders have taken their responsibilities, we would never have had most of the problems we are facing today. When a leader refuses to stand up to his responsibilities, there will be problem.

“Some of our leaders are party to our problem.‎ The moment we want to use one impunity  to address another, it will not work”.

He urged the reconciliation team to go back and address his demands and arrive at a lasting solution to the crisis.

Speaking with reporters, Gana said the committee had taken note of the problems within the party.

He said: “We are delighted that there is a clear resolution on the determination and the desire that the problems be resolved, unity be re -established and for PDP to move forward”.

The PDP, he said, would resolve the crisis and come out of it stronger, adding: ‎”Nigerians are waiting for PDP, they are missing PDP, they are crying and yearning for PDP because the 16 years of democracy cannot be wasted away”

Those in the Gana team included former Jigawa State Governor Sule Lamido,  his Enugu State counterpart, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo, Deputy Senate Minority Whip Senator Abiodun Olujimi‎, Mrs. Stella Omu, former Minister of Aviation Ambassador Fidelia Njeze, former Minister of Women Affairs Hajia Inna Ciroma and Air Commodore Dan Suleiman (rtd), among others.

On Sheriff’s side were PDP Vice Chairman (Southsouth) Dr. Cairo Ojougboh, Senator Hope Uzodinma and former presidential aide Alhaji Ahmed Gulak,‎ among others.

Accusing the Sheriff group of maintaining a hardline position on the crisis, Makarfi, who spoke on Channels Television monitored in Lagos,  said his camp had sat with the other side 20 times without a headway. He said of the 15 suits pending in court, none was filed by his group. “We are defendants”, he said, adding that three of the four court rulings favoured the caretaker committee.

Makarfi said the appointment of Sheriff as acting PDP chairman was wrong, noting that Sheriff’s name was not among the five presented by the Northeast zone of the PDP to replace and complete the tenure of the former Chairman, Adamu Mu’azu, who resigned.

Some PDP governors, he said, inserted Sheriff’s name into the list. “When the list was presented to the expanded National Executive Committee (NEC) for consideration, many people walked out of the meeting in protest against the inclusion of Sheriff’s name”, he said.

After reconciliation, he said, it was agreed that Sheriff would serve for three months within which he would organise national convention where substantive party officers would be elected.

 According to him, the agreement was breached as Sheriff started planning to succeed himself and plotting to emerge as the PDP presidential candidate in 2019. Sheriff, Makarfi claimed, promised three governors the running mate ticket. “This is what led us to where we are today”, he said.

On the legality of the national convention purportedly held on May 20, by his group in Port Harcourt, Makarfi explained that there was no court order stopping the convention, the court only restrained the party from conducting election for the office of the national chairman, national secretary and national auditor.

“The May 20 Convention sacked the Sheriff-led executive. The convention has power to set up any organ; that was how the caretaker committee came to be. It was monitored by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). I have with me a copy of the INEC’s report which states that the May 20 convention did not contravene any court order”. On the planned August 17 convention, Makarfi said: “It will hold as scheduled; none of the 15 law suits has restrained us from holding the convention”.

Makarfi said PDP would come out of the crisis stronger, stating: “We have to find our feet as a major opposition party in the country. I am sure within two or three months, we will get over all these problems and PDP will become solid”.

On the zoning of the party’s offices, Makarfi said they were zoned between north and south.  “There can be micro-zoning within the two divides (i.e. north and south); that notwithstanding, every member has the right to seek election for any position zoned to the divide they belong”, he said.