Ondo tussle worsens PDP national crisis

All hopes that the crisis of leadership rocking the national headquarters of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would soon be resolved have been dashed by the controversial court pronouncements on the right candidate of the party in Ondo State.

The Ali Modu Sheriff faction which candidate was not recognized in the Edo election, is currently hinging its supremacy on the listing of Mr. Jimoh Ibrahim, its preferred candidate, by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the flag bearer of the party in the governorship election scheduled for this weekend.

Buoyed by this development, which is already causing ripples in the state’s political circles, the Sheriff’s group has called on Nigerians to discountenance any claim of leadership from the rival Ahmed Makarfi’s caretaker committee.

According to the Acting National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Bernard Mikko, who is of the Sheriff’s group, “Dayo Adeyeye, a self aggrandized spokesman and all other members of the outlawed Makarfi-led National Caretaker Committee is hereby disclaimed from further parading themselves as individuals or group acting as national officers of the party.”

But in a response to the statement, Adeyeye, who spoke with The Guardian on phone yesterday accused Sheriff and his supporters of working for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), to destroy the PDP ahead of the 2019 elections “this is a fact Nigerians are aware of.”

Mikko in his statement said “the facts of the leadership crisis in the PDP was a public knowledge, including the on going legal efforts that are being complimented with the political solution of reconciliation and rebuilding under the leadership of Sen. Sheriff, and supported by eminent Nigerians and strategic stakeholders who strongly believe that the PDP is not only a government in waiting, but also the only party with formidable structures and robust solution to tackle the economic and social problems confronting our nation.”

He said Adeyeye and other members of the Markafi caretaker group should take this disclaimer very seriously because they are already in contempt of an Abuja Federal High Court ruling that declared them illegal and also ordered them not to parade themselves as lawful national officers of the party “after they missed their way to Port Harcourt on May 21, 2016 in defiance of a subsisting court order from another Federal High Court, Lagos division of May 12, 2016.”

Mikko also urged the PDP loyalists and stakeholders to condemn the actions of the Makarfi faction, “the root of which contributed significantly to the affairs that led party’s shameful defeat in the 2015 presidential election.”

According to him, “Our problem in PDP is neither the structure nor the ordinary people at the grassroots, but some terrible, vicious and greedy individuals who see the PDP as a franchise for criminal accumulation of our common heritage.

“As we vigorously pursue the processes of rebuilding our party through consultation, reconciliation and strategic engagement of our stakeholders at all levels, all legal and political solutions are open and will be applied within the extant provisions of the law, including the disciplinary provisions of Article 57(3 & 4) of the 2014 PDP Constitution (as amended).”

Meanwhile, Adeyeye, who alleged that the media has been promoting the Sheriff’s faction unnecessarily despite knowing the truth said, “Nigerians know who the real PDP is. Sen. Sheriff and his gang are mere usurpers and the time is up for them to stop their antics, not just in the interest of the party but for the nation at large.”

He also dismissed the believe that the INEC decision to recognize Ibrahim, who emerged from the governorship primary organized by the Sheriff’s group in Ibadan Oyo State against the one held by the Makarfi’s Committee in Ondo, and well supervised by the commissions representatives, which produced Mr. Eyitayo Jegede, is giving the other group an edge saying, “nothing could be farther from the truth.”

According to him, “There is no truth in it that INEC recognize Sheriff’s group above the Makarfi committee. This is an error that must be corrected. The commission only acted in obedience to court order. Sheriff and his gang went to get spurious court order and that is what it is hinging on. It is not that it has any upper hand.”

Adeyeye added that the plan was to use Sheriff to destabilize the PDP ahead of the 2019 election “but very soon the party would get over it.”