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Makarfi fears for PDP survival, commends Jonathan

By Saxone Akhaine, Northern Bureau Chief
05 March 2017   |   4:39 am
Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Caretaker Committee, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, has said he does not know what will befall the party if the political solution...

Goodluck Jonathan

Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Caretaker Committee, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, has said he does not know what will befall the party if the political solution put forward by former President Goodluck Jonathan fails.

Makarfi, who spoke against the background of the recent meeting between PDP Governors and the former president, commented on fears that a new political party may spring out of PDP if both the judicial and proposed political solutions to the crisis fail.

Tasked on specifics about moves by some PDP stalwarts to form a new party, Makarfi said: “We have not sanctioned any particular measure in that respect. But, you know in politics you cannot also say exactly what people may do or may not do. It is about interests.”

He added, “There are those who may have made up their minds, depending on what happens. It is based on individual choices. But, I would not be surprised if some people within PDP feel that they should make effort to register a new party. Equally, I won’t be surprised if some people move to the party in government or some other platform.”

The Caretaker chairman commended the meditative role of Jonathan and other stakeholders of the party to save it from disintegration, stressing, “when you are in touch with leaders you don’t come out to continue talking about what you discussed.”

Makarfi added: “the base line is that overwhelming majority do not trust Sheriff to conduct convention. Sheriff does not trust me to conduct convention. Therefore none of us should conduct the convention. That is the baseline. Not only that, the Court of Appeal in Port Harcourt restored virtually all past national leaders, that is the judgment.

“Some of them their tenure will expire in 2018. That all of them should now resign and our lawyers should look at it and draw an indemnity so that they would not go to court again challenging that their tenure had not ended.”

The embattled caretaker chairman recalled that when a northern leader intervened and said both he and Sherriff should go, that he made it clear that his exit was not an issue.

“I said I can go, but the problem is beyond him and me. I know that there is the problem of tenure of about twenty something people. So, you can’t just take out one and leave twenty problems,” Makarfi pointed out, saying that that is what people try to lose sight off.

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