Tag: PDP crisis

THE Chairman of the Caretaker Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Ahmed Makarfi, has chided the courtbacked National Chairman of the party, Alhaji Ali Modu Sheriff, for attacking former President Goodluck Jonathan and the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike. Sheriff had, at a media briefing in Abuja on Thursday, accused Jonathan of collecting N50 million from Wike to organise last week’s stakeholders’ meeting to reconcile warring factions in the PDP. Sheriff’s deputy, Dr. Cairo Ojougboh, addressed the media briefing. But at another media briefing in Abuja yesterday, Makarfi said it’s uncharitable for Sheriff and his camp to concoct deliberate falsehood aimed at impugning the character and public perception of the former president. In the text of the address read by the spokesman of the Caretaker Committee, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, the faction said it’s the height of lunacy for Sheriff and Ojougboh to allege that a person of Jonathan’s standing could be induced by anyone to organise a meeting. Makarfi said: “These people are pigs in the mud and they have no qualms in dragging decent people into the pit. “Our first reaction after reading the concoction put together by Cairo Ojugboh was to ig- Na’Abba blames Obasanjo for executive, legislature face-off Aformer Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Mohammed Bello Adoke( SAN), yesterday raised the alarm that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is planning to raid his home in Okene.

He also said it is likely that the anti-graft agency might plant incriminating documents or cash in the house. Adoke, who cried out through a statement by his Media Officer, Mr. Victor Akhidenor, in Abuja said the EFCC was seeking evidence to indict him. The statement said: “We have been reliably informed of a plan by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to raid the Okene, Kogi country home of Mohammed Bello Adoke (SAN), the former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation. “We gathered that the swoop on the country home of the former Attorney General and Minister of justice could happen any moment from now as part of the EFCC’s sustained campaign to soil the good name of Mr Adoke in the guise of seeking evidence to indict him. “It would be recalled that only last week, the EFCC invaded Adoke’s residence in Kano State, breaking doors, upturning chairs and tables and generally disturbing the peace of the neighbourhood. “They claimed they were looking for documents with which to substantiate their wild allegations of corruption against Mr Adoke. It did not find anything incriminating as there was no such document.

“But that action alone has established one fact; that the EFCC had no shred of evidence on which it had charged Mr. Adoke to court. It was after charging him that they now started hunting around for evidence. Is this FORMER Speaker of the House of Representatives, Ghali Umar Na’Abba, has accused former President Olusegun Obasanjo of being behind the frosty relationship that has existed between the executive and legislature since the return to democratic rule in 1999. The former speaker said former President Obasanjo wanted what he described as a subjugated legislature, but met a stiff opposition in the House of Representatives. Speaking at a national conference on “Political Party Supremacy and the Dynamics of Parliamentary Autonomy” organised by the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), the former speaker said the decision of former President Obasanjo to impose a leadership on the National Assembly and the resolve to fight back by the lawmakers are responsible for the relationship that has existed between the two arms of government since 1999.

Tracing the origin of the crisis, Na’Abba said Obasanjo’s first step was to change the date of the inauguration of the National Assembly from June 3, 1999 to June 6 to allow him ample opportunity to manipulate the election of the Senate President, thus paving the way for the emergence of Evan Ewerem as Senate President instead of Chuba Okadigbo that was preferred by most senators. He said: “The action of June 3, 1999 by Obasanjo, the election of Ghali Na’Abba as speaker of the House of Representatives on July 22, 1999 and the election of Senator Chuba Okadigbo as Senate President convoluted to define the relationship between the legislature and the executive. “The relationship between the National Assembly and the executive arm became characterized by antagonism. It was clearly more than the necessary kind of friction which was desirous for the proper functioning of the legislature.” Also speaking, Prof. Jibrin Ibrahim also blamed the former President for the lack of party supremacy in the current political dispensation, pointing out that by declaring himself as the leader of the party, he succeeded in eroding the powers of the party to control their members.

He said: “The original sin was committed in 1999 when the then newly elected President Olusegun Obasanjo declared himself the leader of the party, thereby usurping the power of the party chairman. “Once he did that, sitting governors in the state declared themselves party leaders at the levels. Party executives then became simple figureheads without real power or influence.” In his paper entitled ‘Political Party Supremacy and the Challenges of Executive and Legislative Relationship in Nigeria’, former Deputy Senate President, Ibrahim Mantu, said the Nigerian nation had seen the worst of all sorts of bad governance, pointing out that while there is corruption all over the world, the type of corruption in Nigeria “is uniquely different. There is an element of greed in our brand of corruption. In other words, we are greedily corrupt.” nore him since he is not an officer of the PDP. “But ignoring him may send wrong signal to the unsuspecting members of the public and members of our party, hence the need for this clarification.

“Mr. Ojugboh in recent times has been making a series of unfounded and unsubstantiated allegations against major stakeholders of the PDP, especially those people his renegade group believes are seriously against the evil intention of Ali Modu Sheriff to destroy the only main opposition voice in the country, the PDP. “However, we are not surprised that Mr. Cairo would hallucinate and find pleasure in castigating Governors Nyesom Wike and Ayodele Fayose of Rivers and Ekiti states at every turn, but has never been able to utter a single word of criticism against their paymaster, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), despite its gross ineptitude and maladministration. “For the record, the last stakeholders’ meeting convened and chaired by former President Jonathan was not sponsored or organised by Governor Wike or Fayose as alleged by Mr. Cairo Ojugboh”.

According to Makarfi, the need for the meeting was agreed upon at the residence of a former National Security Adviser (NSA), Gen. Aliyu Gusau, in the presence of Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, Professor Wale Oladipo, Senator David Mark, Senator Ahmed Makarfi and Senator Ben Obi. “Gen. Gusau and Senator Mark were mandated in that meeting to approach the former President to convene an all-inclusive meeting of stakeholders in order to chart a way forward for a lasting peace in the party”, Makarfi added. The Caretaker Committee expressed dismay at Sheriff’s penchant for blackmailing every available public institution in the country just to mislead the unsuspecting public. Makarfi continued, “Again, we wish to take serious exception to the baseless allegation made by Ojougboh that Governor Wike bribed the judiciary to get justice in the Rivers State governorship election at the Supreme Court. “This is another high point of rascality by the Sheriff renegade group and we have been reliably informed that the latest accusation against the judiciary is part of their calculated and clandestine plot to blackmail the justices of the Supreme Court.

“They did the same to the justices of the Special Appeal panels during the Ondo State governorship election case when the panel, led by Justice Sankey, was falsely accused of collecting over N200 million from former Governor Olusegun Mimiko in November 2016. “We believe the judiciary and indeed all Nigerians are taking note of the antecedents of Senator Ali Modu Sheriff and co. as we urge the judiciary not to ignore such weighty allegations by this irritant group”. The Makarfi camp expressed satisfaction that the ongoing campaign by Sheriff to infiltrate the ranks of party members in the South East and South South was being spurned by key stakeholders. He stated that the PDP is not organising any campaign or rally in any part of the country at the moment and urge members to remain steadfast and continue to ignore any meeting called by Sheriff and his “doomsday naysayers”. According to him, there will be no elective national convention of the PDP as announced by Sheriff until the appeal pending before the Supreme Court is decided.

He advised state chapters to ignore any directive from Sheriff regarding the convention. He also enjoined stakeholders to ignore the request made by Sheriff for state chapters to submit their lists of delegates on or before April 27 and his call for the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting on May 3. The PDP, he said, will announce meetings of the various organs of the party at the appropriate time after due consultation with all stakeholders. “For the umpteenth time, we wish to reiterate that Senator Sheriff and co. are in defiance of the Court of Appeal order of status quo ante May 21, 2016 with self-appointed officers like Cairo Ojugboh. “Only three officers are with him, and, therefore, such NWC is non-existent. As for the deputy officers who shamelessly assumed offices as NWC members on the false claim of the purported resignation of the substantive officers, their comic action against the party speaks volume”. The Makarfi camp called on all organs and key stakeholders in the party nationwide to continue supporting the Caretaker Committee in moving the party forward. According to him, the only interest of the Caretaker Committee is the survival of the PDP against the “suffocating influence” of the ruling APC.

The court-backed National Vice Chairman (Southwest) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Makanjuola Ogundipe, has said nobody in the party can stop justice for impunity to thrive.

Ogundipe, who addressed reporters yesterday in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State capital, said Governor Ayo Fayose and other PDP chieftains supporting the National Caretaker Committee Chairman, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, “are lawless individuals whose stock in trade is impunity”.

Reacting to a factional Southwest zonal meeting hosted on Tuesday and presided over by factional zonal chair, Dr Eddy Olafeso, at Ado-Ekiti Government House, the PDP chieftain stressed that Sheriff remained the party’s National Chairman, as affirmed by the court.

He said those in the Makarfi faction only wanted to hijack the party for their selfish ambition.

But Ogundipe said such people had their hopes dashed as the Court of Appeal recognised Sheriff and his National Working Committee (NWC) as the executives empowered by law to run the party.

The former Ekiti PDP Chairman, under whose tenure Fayose won the 2014 governorship election, said the party’s leaders and other Southwest residents recognised Sheriff “and will always give him support”.

He said: “The law-abiding people in the Southwest recognise Sheriff as the PDP National Chairman and so will always give him support. Sheriff is preaching peace and moving the party forward in the face of all adversities.

“As the national chairman, he has not stopped at repositioning the party. He is busy reconciling party members to ensure that peace reigns. He is calming frayed nerves and appealing to those who are still aggrieved about what happened in the recent past.

“Those who are afraid of Sheriff in the Southwest PDP are probably those who think their selfish manipulations will not be possible under Sheriff as the National Chairman. But they are entitled to their fears.

“These people should not, because of their reasons, derail the political fortunes of many as we move to elections in Ekiti and Osun states.

“The PDP has waited enough for the outcome of the Appeal Court judgment; it is only logical and politically sensible to allow peace and progress within the party

Efforts to find a political solution to the festering leadership crisis in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday suffered a major setback.

Court-backed National Chairman  Ali Modu Sheriff stormed out of a peace meeting convened by former President Goodluck Jonathan.

At the meeting, which was chaired by Dr. Jonathan, were four of the party’s governors.

Also there were the chairman of the Board of Trustees (BoT), Senator Walid Jibrin and other notable chieftains.

Sheriff, who came into the Yar ‘Adua Centre, Abuja venue of the meeting long after Jonathan, the governors and other party chiefs had taken their seats, stormed out of the meeting at 4:25 pm.

He disagreed with Jonathan on the meeting, saying he (Sheriff) remained the most senior member of the PDP and, as such, a meeting of that nature ought to have been convened by him.

Visibly agitated Sheriff was more piqued by Jonathan’s refusal to allow him address the meeting in his capacity as the National Chairman.

According to him, the meeting was at variance with the recommendations made by a reconciliation committee headed by Bayelsa State Governor Seriake Dickson.

Speaking with reporters shortly after he quit the meeting with his team, Sheriff said he would not be party to any arrangement that seemed to deviate from the recommendation of the Dickson committee.

His words: “We were here for PDP stakeholders meeting and the PDP has only one national chairman, which is Ali Modu-Sheriff. There is no PDP meeting that will take place under whatever arrangement that I will not open the session as national chairman. Today, I am the most senior member of this party.

“I think Governor Dickson made a proposal for reconciliation. And we have accepted. Some people want to deviate from this programme, to bring agenda which was not part of it.

“And as national chairman of the party, what I told you people in my office when Dickson brought the report is the only thing that we have agreed at this moment. And I will not be party for anybody using me to do another programme. I’m not going to be part of it.”

Asked if he had not disrespected Jonathan by storming out of the meeting, Sheriff said he respected the former president but that respect  must be reciprocal. According to him, Jonathan should not have called the meeting without consulting him.

Said he: “Well, I respect him but calling for the meeting. He is a former president. But as of today, I am the most senior member of the party.

“Therefore, if I respect him, the respect must be reciprocated. You can’t call me for a meeting of PDP and say I cannot address the meeting as national chairman of the party.”

Asked on the way forward, Sheriff said he was sticking with the Dickson recommendation, which proposed a national convention under his watch.

“As the National Chairman, we move on.  We have a programme initiated by Dickson. And we are continuing with that. Anything outside that, I am not a party to it,” he said.

In his opening address, Jonathan said he had been working with key party stakeholders back stage and that the meeting was his first major political outing since he left office about two years ago.

He acknowledged the crisis that has plagued the party for almost two years, saying the development was not new in democracies the world over, including the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (U.S.).

Jonathan said: “I will like to point out that every election cycle throws up a challenge as well as opportunities for a political party; a test to re-evaluate its performance, and an opportunity to reform its processes and programmes towards rediscovering itself to become even more appealing to the electorate in its next outing.

“It is obvious that some of our people see this development as not only disappointing but discouraging for our great party. Although I can understand this sense of loss, I always prefer to align myself with those who choose to see it differently, given the positive impact our conduct and disposition has had in deepening our democracy.

“All over the world, political parties lose elections, not because they have entirely failed, but because, in most cases, the people who gave them power in the first place, have decided to hand it over to another party, in order to experience a different kind of leadership.

“In Africa and other emerging democracies, the challenge has always been with the disposition of the party in power to allow the people the opportunity to freely exercise this right.

“This obviously is the area where we have excelled. The fact that we allowed this process to take place peacefully, and freely handed over power to the opposition did not only lift the profile of our party, but also elevated our country to the status of one of the world’s stable and reliable democracies.

“For this gesture alone, the whole world has continued to applaud our party and its leaders as icons of democracy on the continent.

“We were able to achieve this because our government really reformed the electoral and political process, by giving the electoral bodies their true independence which subsequently opened up the political space for free and fair elections.

“We may have had shortcomings while in power, but we also recorded significant achievements and great milestones. Through purposeful leadership, we reformed our institutions, rebuilt the nation’s confidence, regained international goodwill and rekindled hope in our people.”

The former president encouraged the gathering not to despair over loss of power and enjoined them to make sacrifices by putting the interest of the PDP above their personal interests.

Describing the PDP as a leading light in constitutional democracy, Jonathan said the party cannot be allowed to continue to drift, adding that the gathering was designed to stem the drift.

He urged the stakeholders to bury their differences, to ensure a quick resolution of the leadership problems in the party, stressing that there is no sacrifice too big to make.

Jonathan said a 40-member committee would be set up to finetune decisions taken at the meeting with a view to resolving all outstanding issues.

He continued: “As politicians, with the zeal to lead our people, we must aspire to higher offices or identify the people we believe have leadership qualities and encourage them to aspire to those positions. But one thing is very clear: you cannot, as the polity is configured today, be elected into a higher office on the platform of a weak party.

“We must all, therefore, work to rebuild the PDP and strengthen the party in line with the vision of our founding fathers, and the mission to continue to provide for the good of the people of our great country, valuable leadership in a stable democracy rooted in the rule of law.

“We have to remind ourselves that the prolongation of the crisis in our party may have cost us so much in election fortunes, in recent time. The loss of Edo and Ondo gubernatorial elections is still fresh in our memory. It goes without saying that we cannot afford to have a repeat of that in the forthcoming elections in Anambra, Ekiti and Osun states.

“It is high time we buried the hatchet, suppressed our ego and prepared to make sacrifices in the interest of our party and, in deed the country.

“Our ambitions therefore must come second, otherwise we will only be building castles on quick sand. We must realise that, as they say, everybody is nobody without a platform. So, why destroy the platform?

“I urge our teeming members to remain steadfast and continue to believe in the PDP. As I said earlier, it is true that we suffered a setback in 2015, but the fact remains that the PDP is still the largest party in our dear country.

“There is no doubt that the PDP will emerge from this moment of trial to regain its position as the greatest party on our continent.”

At the meeting were Governors Ayo Fayose (Ekiti), Nyesom Wike (Rivers) and Darius Ishaku (Taraba). Deputy Governors of Gombe and Ebonyi states were also there.

Others at the meeting were the chairman of the party’s Caretaker Committee, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, Prince Uche Secondus, Olisa Metuh, among others.

Dickson was among the party’s governors who did not attend the meeting and were not represented by their deputies.