Tag: Sheriff

Fresh facts emerged yesterday on why the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governors had to dump Alhaji Ali Modu Sheriff as National Chairman at the May 21 convention ground in Port Harcourt.

A high ranking chieftain who gave an insight into why the governors fell out with Sheriff, revealed that the governors had settled for Sheriff as chairman based on promises he made to finance the party’s 2019 presidential campaign with N40 billion.

He was also said to have promised the governors that he would deploy five private jets for the party’s electioneering campaign in 2019.

The PDP chieftain, who is a key stakeholder in the North East zone, however said the governors started to suspect Sheriff’s motives a few days to the May 21 convention.

The party chief, who spoke with our correspondent yesterday on condition of anonymity, said the governors later found that Sheriff had sold them a dummy.

Said the source: “Contrary to his promise to fund the party, they discovered that the ex-PDP chair was spending the party’s lean resources on the few party activities he held during his tenure.

“Sheriff also exploited the ambition of some of the party’s sitting governors, particularly the governors in the southern states, to become the party’s vice presidential candidate in 2019.

“The ex-party chairman had approached five of the governors in separate secret meetings with promises of the party’s 2019 vice presidential ticket, with him as presidential candidate.

“The truth is that some of the governors actually fell for it and they were already scheming along with him without knowing there were five of them fighting for the same ticket.”

The source further revealed that it was during a recent interaction at a critical meeting that the governors discovered that Sheriff had indeed promised five of them the party’s vice presidential ticket.

“The governors were alarmed when they found that Sheriff had sold them a dummy. It dawned on them that Sheriff had wanted to transmute from chairman to the party’s presidential candidate along the line”.

The party chieftain said it was then that the governors realised that the N40 billion and five campaign jets promised by Sheriff were a bait to become chairman and presidential candidate.

But in a swift reaction, Sheriff said the allegations against him were far fetched and that the governors themselves know the truth.

His Media Adviser, Mr. Inuwa Bwala, who spoke to our correspondent on the telephone yesterday, said the governors were only being clever by half.

According to him, virtually all the PDP governors from the south were scheming to become vice presidential candidate in the 2019 election, and it was the scrabble for the ticket that tore them apart.

He refuted the claim that Sheriff did not spend his personal resources on the party, insisting that all the governors, except the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, who also has a plane at his disposal, made use of Sheriff’s private jets on one occasion or the other.

Bwala said: “Almost all the governors from the South want to be Vice President in 2019, and that was the source of the conflict. It was this bitter struggle that brought the party to its present situation.

“And if they were expecting to get N40 billion from Sheriff just to make him chairman, then they have lost the moral ground to complain for not getting the money as easily as they had wished. They should wait until Sheriff himself is ready to tell the entire story exactly the way it is.”

Commenting on the lingering crisis, another party source told our correspondent that it was a court case filed against the party with Sheriff as one of the plaintiffs that finally broke the camel’s back.

A few days to the botched Port Harcourt convention, Sheriff and two members of the party’s sacked National Working Committee (NWC) had approached a court in Lagos to halt the convention.

Plaintiffs in the suit were the ex-National Secretary, Prof. Adewale Oladipo; ex National Auditor, Adewole Adeyanju and Sheriff. The suit specifically sought to stop election into the offices of National Secretary, National Auditor and National Chairman.

The plaintiffs had averred that their tenure would not be expiring until 2018 and that their positions were not vacant.

But when the governors and other party stakeholders confronted Sheriff on the suit, he claimed that his name was included as one of the plaintiffs without his consent, a claim that the party chiefs took with a pinch of salt.

“That showed the governors the red light. They discovered at the last minute that they were dealing with a man that was ready to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds at the same time”, the party source said.

Embattled former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Acting Chairman Ali Modu Sheriff yesterday lost more support as eight members of his National Working Committee (NWC) jumped ship. They supported the Ahmed Makarfi-led Caretaker Committee.

Also yesterday, Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike accused Sheriff of making a U-turn on the party’s national convention when he got information that he was not qualified to contest last Saturday’s election.

Wike, according to a statement by his Special Assistant on Electronic Media, Simeon Nwakaudu, said: “We have seen that there is a hidden agenda, but nobody can destroy the PDP. The PDP will wax stronger.”

According to him, Sheriff subjected himself to screening by the National Convention Screening Committee last Friday and he (Sheriff) praised the transparent process, only to cite a court order on Saturday, during a news conference in Port Harcourt, when the result of the screening committee did not favour him.

He noted that by “his anti-party actions”, the former acting national chairman had proved his numerous critics right that he was out to destroy the PDP.

Wike, who was the chairman of the 2016 National Convention Planning Committee, alleged that the main associates of the former acting national chairman were persons of questionable character.

He said: “Those around the former Acting National Chairman (of PDP) have questionable character. They are people who think that they can use the judiciary to cause crisis.

“In my entire political career, I have never seen a man with many opponents as Senator Ali Modu Sheriff. He should apologise to the members of the party.”

He said Sheriff filed a suit against the party, but lied about his involvement in the suit, which was later discovered by the PDP stakeholders.

He urged all the stakeholders to support the caretaker committee of the party, to lead the PDP to success.

Eight members of the immediate past NWC yesterday announced that they had dumped Sheriff.

The eight ex-party officials are: Prince Uche Secondus (Deputy National Chairman); Hon. Onwe Solomon Omwe (Deputy National Secretary); Mr. Victor Kwom (National Legal Adviser); Dr. Kema Chikwe (National Woman Leader); Mr. Abdullahi Maibasira ( National Youth Leader); Elder Bolaji Anani (National Financial Secretary); Alhaji Buhari Bala (National Treasurer) and Chief Olisa Metuh (National Publicity Secretary).

In a six-point resolution dated May 25, 2015, the ex-party officials said:

“As products of the party’s National Convention, we accept without equivocation all decisions and resolutions of the National Convention of the Peoples Democratic Party held at Port Harcourt on 21st May 2016.

“The decision of the National Convention dissolving the National Working Committee merely re-echoes our undeniable decision as members of National Working Committee to give up our tenures for congresses and Convention to be held in May 2016.

“The National Caretaker Committee constituted by the National Convention on 21st May 2016 is fully within the powers of the National Convention under Section 33(5)(e) of the party’s constitution.

“We recognise the Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led National Caretaker Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party and offer the Committee all our support and cooperation.

“As responsible and honourable party members who have had the privilege of serving the party at the highest level, we do not support and are not party to any suit, action or activity seeking to challenge the decisions of the National Convention in appointing the National Caretaker Committee or dissolving the former NWC, which had, at any rate, earlier agreed to go.

“We enjoin the entire mass of the youth, women, elders, stakeholders and membership of the party nationwide to shun personal interest and support and cooperate with the Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led National Caretaker Committee so that the party may move forward.

The ex- National Secretary, Prof. Adewale Oladipo and ex-National Auditor Adewole Adeyanju have teamed up with Sheriff to contest their ouster in the law courts.

THE Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is in a considerable state of flux, beset by agonising conflicts, assailed on all fronts by internal and external predators, and run by a camorra of blacklegs and self-centred politicians and contractors. Now split in two by wrangles and grotesque posturing, the usual national conventions it organised with such infinite and practised ease many years back have become a tortuous exercise so bewildering that even college students encountering political science in the classroom for the first time are left aghast. After many disputed, if not stalemated, congresses in the past two weeks or so, a national convention is to be held in Port Harcourt today, May 21. Early this week, a faction of the party apparently headed by the hardy perennial, Jerry Gana, had flexed muscle and broken ranks with the main rump to threaten a parallel convention in Abuja for the same day.

From being the self-confessed largest party in Africa and the black world, the PDP has become a diminutive and acrimonious agglomeration of quarrelsome and fractious politicians, each having an eye for the main chance. The division is of course artificial. But it is nonetheless potent and portentous. If not managed well, the division can become permanent and the existence of the party threatened. For now, the division is essentially and neatly drawn between the former movers and shakers of the party, who describe themselves as Concerned PDP Stakeholders, and the present shakers. In terms of sheer weight and bulk, the former movers and shakers (ex-governors and ministers, among many others) carry more name recognition and news value. But the present shakers (mainly current governors and serving legislators) are no idlers themselves.

The main bone of contention is the determination by the interim chairman, former governor Ali Modu Sheriff, to retain the office of party chairman. This flows from the equally disputed and acrimonious zoning of party offices. His supporters, particularly the Board of Trustees (BoT) which had been arm-twisted by persons and circumstances to embrace the Sheriff agenda, hedged and underscored their support for him with the insinuation that he would relinquish office in 2018 when another convention would be held to ratify the party’s northern standard-bearer. There was no oath taken; only a promise, nay, an insinuation. His opponents have not directly suggested why they rebuff Senator Sheriff. But they give the indication in whispers that he carries too many image problems to be the pristine public face of the party they hoped could be positioned to retake office in 2019. Openly, however, the opponents talk of the immorality of an interim chairman transmuting into a permanent chairman, and the skewness of the zoning of party offices in favour of the North.

Senator Sheriff has the support, even if tenuous, of two of the party’s forceful governors, to wit, Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State, whom many former leaders of the party have come to revile for his volubility and serial indiscretion, and Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, the pugnacious and self-made man with the swagger and a fearsome, unwholesome punch. He also has the support of a significant number of the party’s BoT. Without saying it openly, those who support Senator Sheriff do so on the grounds that he is fearless, wealthy, politically adept and eager for a fight — both to furnish the fight or to retaliate an injury. At a time when the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) seems to be led by a dour and gritty retired army officer who equally does not shirk a fight, Senator Sheriff’s supporters believe they need someone with equal heft and beam, someone who is impatient to get into the fray.

So far, Senator Sheriff’s supporters have not been able to persuade the Concerned PDP Stakeholders made up of ex-this and ex-that to see politics from their invidious prism. The reasons are legion. The Stakeholders comprise many ethicists and yesterday’s politicians sidelined by one or the other previous PDP presidencies. They are either genuinely concerned about the reasons PDP lost office in 2015 or they resent the manner they have been left with the short end of the stick, standing outside and looking in. If they cannot muscle their way to prominence now when the party is being reformed or reconstituted, they reason, they could find themselves on the shelf as expired products. No prospect is more galling to a politician, not even the fear of electoral defeat, than to be consigned to the shelf, ignored and perhaps disdained. To them Senator Sheriff is not only domineering and opinionated, he has proved eminently and over the years that he can call his soul his own, and is thus unamenable to being controlled by remote means.

The May 21 convention will determine which faction has the upper hand. To be sure, the Abuja convention cannot be legal because it was not mandated by the properly constituted national convention committee. But if it enjoys substantial attendance, it will wield a moral force which the lawfully constituted convention cannot wish away. Even then, once the Port Harcourt convention also manages a substantial attendance, it’s ability to decimate the rank of the Abuja faction must not be discounted. It may be pragmatic to endorse Senator Sheriff for both the interim and substantive chairmanship positions, but does it make sense in the long run? And can both factions of the party be trusted to operate from altruistic points of view? Does the Port Harcourt faction, so-called, believe that by backing Senator Sheriff the PDP could give the APC the fight of its life? And does the Abuja faction really hunger for ethical revolution within the PDP, let alone rally behind someone of ample girth to take the fight to President Buhari’s APC?

Neither faction has been able to read the dynamics of the new politics afoot in the country. They both believe new wine could stay in old wine skin without spilling its content or rupturing the wineskin. What the electorate called upon the PDP to do through the repudiation of their candidates in the 2015 elections is to boldly reform and reinvent the party from the self-centred and arrogant party it had become. The two factions apparently misunderstand the import of that repudiation. The anti-corruption agenda of the Buhari presidency also calls upon the PDP to purge its leadership cadre of those tainted by corruption probes or who are already facing prosecution. Neither faction has advanced this cause, not to talk of adopting it or campaigning for it. Worse, they do not even believe that the anti-corruption war is necessary, despite massive evidence of the damage done to the country by the crazy filching masterminded by their party over 16 years.

Moreover, the two factions have continued to advance the silly and sentimental argument that President Buhari’s anti-corruption war is mischievously and malevolently directed at the opposition. Even if it were so — and there is tentative evidence to show it is so — it does not preclude the need for the PDP to purge its leadership of tainted politicians and apparatchiks in order to present a new a refreshing face to the country for 2019. Both factions expect a miracle in 2019, one that would see them unhorsing the APC without the change and ethical reinvention the electorate demands of them. There will be no miracle in 2019. The confusion in the PDP today is therefore nothing but a reflection of their disingenuous efforts to control and manage their noxious affairs regardless of the humiliation they got in 2015.

Not only does the PDP need new, powerful and eloquent leaders for the next polls, they also need new structures, strategies and apparatuses. To offer the kind of opposition to the ruling APC the society needs, they will have to eschew old methods and rebuff discredited leaders. If they are unable to endear themselves to the electorate through brilliant and principled opposition, even the pragmatism of thrusting the pugnacious Senator Sheriff to the front to face President Buhari will prove both idiotic and foolhardy. No one can beat something with nothing. Irrespective of how the PDP’s dual conventions shape out, and notwithstanding their latent ability to reconcile and weld a common front against the ruling party, their lack of internal cleansing and reforms will undermine their best efforts and turn their 2019 hopes into a chimera

Reprieve has come the way of the embattled National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Ali Modu Sheriff.

The various party organs and stakeholders who were hitherto calling for his ouster, yesterday gave him the nod to run as sole chairmanship candidate at the national convention billed to hold in Port Harcourt on Saturday.

At a broad based meeting at the party’s Abuja secretariat, the stakeholders, including the Board of Trustees (BoT) unanimously endorsed Sheriff for the job, with the various dissenting groups in agreement.

Confirming the development, Sheriff, in a chat with newsmen at the party’s secretariat said his candidacy was first endorsed by the party’s Northeast and his home state of Borno in a unanimous voice vote.

Said he, “Yes, I am contesting for the position of chairman at the convention. I have been unanimously endorsed by the Northeast zone and Borno State as sole candidate.

“The Taraba State Governor (Darius Ishaku) moved the motion for my adoption and his Gombe State counterpart, (Ibrahim Dankwabo) seconded the motion”.

Sheriff had, after an earlier meeting with the party’s BoT, said the party had dropped its plan to amend the PDP constitution which had been one of the sources of disagreement among party stakeholders.

He however clarified that the decision to amend the party’s constitution was not his idea, saying that he only inherited the recommendation as contained in a report by the Ike Ekweremadu committee.

Sheriff confirmed the party’s decision to zone the PDP’s presidential ticket to the North for the 2019 general election.

The chairman also assured the BoT and other stakeholders that disagreements arising from the conduct of ward and zonal congresses across the states would be looked into, with a view to addressing areas of conflict.

The party also confirmed Senator Walid Jibrin as newly elected chairman of the BoT, with Chief Ojo Maduekwe as secretary.

With this arrangement, the slots for party chair, BoT chair and presidential candidate for the 2019 election have been taken up by the North.

Addressing journalists shortly after the BoT meeting, Walid said members decided to resolve the crisis amicably in the interest and unity of the party.

He called on the various groups and interests to respect the collective decisions of the party, saying decisions were taken based on the principles of justice and fairness, “without sinister motives”.

The BoT chair urged aggrieved interests and members to seek redress through existing dispute resolution channels.

Also speaking after the meeting, the BoT secretary, Chief Ojo Maduekwe said the body decided to back the decision to hold the convention in spite of its earlier opposition.

According to him, all the grievances articulated by the dissenting stakeholders and groups would be properly addressed, particular disagreements arising from the conduct of congresses across the states.

Defending the zoning of the party chair and presidential ticket to the North, Maduekwe said an incumbent chairman would be prevailed upon to step down the moment a Northern presidential candidate emerged.

“Collective wisdom of the party will prevail on the chairman to step down when the time comes for him to do so”, Chief Maduekwe stated.

Those at the meeting included two party former chairmen, Dr. Ahmadu Ali and Prince Vincent Ogbulafor.

Others include former Senate President, Adolphus Wabara; his erstwhile deputy, Ibrahim Mantu; Prof. Jerry Gana; Chief Tom Ikimi; Chief Bode George; Prof. Tunde Adeniran; Alhaji Shuaibu Oyedokun; Alhaji Adamu Maina Waziri.

Also at the meeting were a number of the party’s ex governors and former members of the National Assembly.

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Acting National Chairman Ali Modu-Sheriff  yesterday apologised to aggrieved chieftains of the party over statements credited to him by his personal aides and associates.

Sheriff, at a news conference in Jalingo, the Taraba State capital, said “as a well-cultured and astute politician, I would never make any comment that would ridicule the party”, according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

He had been quoted by his aides to have damned the agitation by some ex-governors, ex-ministers and other leaders, who asked him to quit on May 21 when his tenure ends but Sheriff is contesting for a full term at the national convention slated for Port Harcourt.

They set up a 51-member steering committee, which they said will take over the role of the National Working Committee (NWC).

Sheriff threatened to report former Information Minister Jerry Gana to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for allegedly taking an unauthorised loan of N500 million on behalf of the party without giving a proper account.

But yesterday,  he said it was not in his character to take up issues with highly respected elders of the party, noting that he never authourised any of his aides or political associates to react to issues raised by aggrieved elders of the party.

Sheriff said that the aggrieved members of the party reserved the right to complain about issues affecting the party which they considered inimical to the progress of the PDP.

He urged any aggrieved member to bury the hatchet and join hands with the present leadership to rebuild the party and restore the confidence of Nigerians in it.

He also noted that the PDP as the main opposition party could not afford to have a divided house and appealed to members to work for the party’s unity.

Sheriff explained that the present leadership of the party was poised to lend a listening ear to all shades of opinions, with a view to strengthening it to face the challenges ahead.

He maintained that the battle for 2019 general elections had started in earnest, adding that the party could not afford to remain divided if the desired goal was to be achieved.

He said “under our leadership and the support and encouragement of stakeholders and supporters, PDP will definitely bounce back in 2019”.

As part of the resolution of the crisis, federal lawmakers elected on the PDP ticket have slated a meeting for today.

A statement jointly signed by the Minority Leader of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, and his counterpart in the House of Representatives, Hon. Leo Ogor, said the joint meeting owould hold at the House of Representatives’ complex, Abuja.

According to the conveners of the joint session, the sole agenda of the meeting would be the review of the state of the party against the backdrop of the forthcoming National Convention of the party. They said attendance is mandatory.

The lawmakers may also deliberate on the fuel price hike.

Also the Board of Trustees, (BoT) will meet today in Abuja.

The BoT is against the planned amendment of the party’s constitution. The proposed amendment says “The BoT shall meet at the instance of the Chairman in consultation with the national chairman of the party or at the request of half of the members of the Board or following a resolution of the Board or the NEC request for such a meeting.

Some members of the BoT and the National Executive Committee led by Prof. Jerry Gana are leading a revolt against Sheriff.

Also yesterday, former Senate President David Mark called for a truce among the party chiefs.

Senator Mark said in a statement by his Media Assistant, Paul Mumeh that:

“I think we have realised our past mistakes and learnt our lessons. We cannot afford a crisis or disaffection within our fold any more.

“It is time for all genuine men and women of our party to make the necessary sacrifice and work honestly towards a United and more cohesive party,” he told the party leaders at the North central congress.

“We must put aside sentiments, personal interest and reconcile honestly and genuinely for the larger interest.”

The PDP, he said, must avoid the pitfalls of the past such as imposition of candidates against the wishes of the majority, insisting that “we are returning the party to the people, let the people decide.”

The leadership crisis in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) took a new twist yesterday. National Chairman Alhaji Ali Modu Sheriff threatened to drag a former Information Minister, Prof. Jerry Gana, before the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Sheriff alleged that Gana took a N500 million loan from a second generation bank on behalf of the PDP, without approval from the leadership of the party. The party chairman, however, did not state the time Gana allegedly obtained the loan.

Addressing reporters at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja yesterday, Media Adviser to the party chairman Mr. Inuwa Bwala said Gana lacked the credibility to criticise Sheriff.

Speaking at a stakeholders’ forum earlier in the day, Gana said the PDP had been hijacked by hoodlums and gangsters, who want to destroy the party.

He accused the Sheriff-led National Working Committee (NWC) of impunity and reckless imposition of candidates in the  ward and state congresses.

Gana said: “The Southwest geopolitical zone has never produced the national chairman in the 16 years of existence of the PDP”.

Gana, leading other prominent members of the party, described the planned amendment to the PDP constitution, championed by Sheriff, as illegal and insisted that the national convention slated for May 21 be put on hold.

But Sheriff vowed to go ahead with the amendment of the constitution and national convention.

Said he: “The national convention will certainly hold in Port Harcourt on May 21 if the world does not end before that date.

“The group, headed by Prof. Gana and similar others, are not known to the party. They should take their grievances to the convention, if they have any. If they choose to leave the PDP, it would be good riddance.

“Let it be known to Prof. Gana and members of his group that they don’t have the monopoly of mudslinging. If we are forced to open up on them, we will not hesitate to do so”.

Sheriff accused Gana and members of his group of having approached him for one favour or the other, only to turn around to attack the chairman when they failed to have their way.

In a communiqué at the end of the Gana-led stakeholders’ forum, the group announced a 21-member steering committee to run the affairs of the party and work with the Board of Trustees to conduct the national convention.

The communiqué said: “We enjoin our party faithful not to despair. The new steering committee will embark on a nationwide tour, to address and resolve issues and areas of conflict in every state.”

The communiqué was signed by a former Education Minister, Prof. Tunde Adeniran; a former Deputy Senate President, Alhaji Ibrahim Mantu; and Chief Raymond Dokpesi.

Those that attended the meeting included Chief Ojo Maduekwe, Okwesilieze Nwodo, Chief Bode George, Wilberforce Juta, Dr. Shettima Mustapha, Senator Bala Mohammed, Ibrahim Bunu, Senator Grace Bent, Adamu Maina Waziri, among others.

Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike blasted the Prof. Gana-led founding members of the PDP, describing them as unpopular in their areas, but issuing threats and attempting to cause confusion in the opposition party.

Wike spoke while addressing the National Convention Planning Committee at the Government House, Port Harcourt, on Wednesday night.

 He said: “Anybody who loves this party, knows that this is the time to make sacrifices. We are rebuilding this party and we need to work together in unity to succeed.

 “It is important that we work as a team, as that is the only way for us to achieve set goals. Only those with hidden agenda will work against the party.”