Wike, Others Plotting To Give PDP 2019 Presidential Ticket To APC Chieftain; Reason We're Fighting Dirty - Sheriff Drops Bombshell

The presidential ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the 2019 elections is the main cause of the current crisis tearing the party apart, its embattled National Chairman Senator Ali Modu Sheriff said yesterday.

Sheriff, who bared his mind in an interview with African Independent Television (AIT), accused Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State and a former Deputy National Chairman of PDP, Prince Uche Secondus, of plotting to hand the party’s ticket to a prominent leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

He said: “Wike and Secondus are working to give the party ticket in 2019 to a man in APC, a man that is not even bold enough to leave the APC and join us. He was in the PDP before. He was a founding father of the PDP.

“I don’t have to mention him. Secondus himself told me that he and Wike always meet this man to strategise plans on 2019. I told him that it is wrong. If the man is bold enough, let him come and join us now.

“They accused me of working for the APC. How? I have never played games like that. I had formed a party and was the BOT Chairman. I was a presidential candidate, three time senator, Minority Leader. Makarfi worked for the APC in 2015, Ben Obi was Atiku’s Vice Presidential Candidate, and Secondus and Wike are meeting an APC man regularly on how the party will be sold to him.

“Wike is full of arrogance and impunity. He is too small to pocket PDP. I will not allow him. There are people who can carry the flag within the party. PDP will not be sold.”

Sheriff is locked in a battle for the soul of the party with Senator Ahmed Makarfi whose tenure as chairman of the party’s caretaker committee was extended by one year in Port Harcourt last Wednesday.

The Police and Department of State Security (DSS) sealed the Sharks Stadium, Port Harcourt which was planned for the national convention convened by the Makarfi faction. The security agencies cited an order by Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court, Abuja on Tuesday which restrained the party from proceeding with the convention.

Justice Ibrahim Watila of the Federal High Court, Port Harcourt on the same day validated the convention while Justice Nwakama Ogbonna of a Federal Capital Territory High Court, Abuja declared Sheriff an illegal chairman of the PDP.

Some other members of the Makarfi faction, including former minister, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, had accused Sheriff of working for the APC

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Amidst Crisis, PDP BOT, NEC hand over to Makarfi

Amidst persistent leadership crisis within the opposition peoples Democratic Party, PDP, the outgone National Executive Committee and Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party on Tuesday formally handed over power to the Interim NEC of the party in Abuja.

The Party's embattled interim National Chairman, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff had earlier shunned a peace meeting called by the leadership of the party. Sheriff had insisted he remained the national chairman and had as well approached a court to that effect.

The Interim NEC is headed by a former Governor of Kaduna State, Senator Ahmed Makarfi.

At the handing over at the party’s secretariat at Wadata Plaza, Abuja, the former Deputy National Chairman of the party, Uche Secondus, said: “The party is one and is strong.

“On behalf of members of the former National Working Committee of the PDP, I am here to handover to the Caretaker Committee Chairman.

“We are ready to work with you.

“We are ready to cooperate with you.”

Secondus enjoined party leaders at all levels to go back to their localities and rebuild the party.

He said all politics is local.

He said it is not enough to remain in Abuja and claim to have a large following.

The Chairman of the BoT, Senator Walid Jibrin, said the body did not take over the running of the affairs of the party as earlier reported.

Jibrin said the BoT only held the assets and liabilities of the party in trust.

He appealed to party members of the party to cooperate with the Makarfi-led Interim Caretaker Committee to enable it deliver on its mandate.

Heavily Armed Police Seal Off PDP Secretariat, 'Chase Off' Sheriff Faction From Entering As Crisis Messy

The lingering crisis rocking the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP assumes a new dimension on Sunday as some men of Nigeria Police Force, heavily armed sealed and took over the premises of the national headquarters of the party, prevention entrance to the secretary.

No fewer than 30 armed policemen, who were led by an assistant superintendent of police, Mr. Ime Obot, prevented journalists from entering or coming close to the two-storeyed building, Punch Newspaper reports this morning

Five security vehicles were packed around the building.

Two trucks were used to block the road in front of the secretariat.

One of the trucks, with number plate NPF 5209C, was used to block the road from the headquarters of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps.

Three other vehicles, including a Hilux van, were used to block the back gate of the building which is used by the party’s national officers, especially the national chairman.

This step, which was noticed on Sunday, was said to have been carried out by the police to prevent the breakdown of law and order at the secretariat.

It would be recalled that a former Governor of Borno State, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, was purported removed as the PDP national chairman at the party’s convention in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on Saturday.

Sheriff, however, described his removal and the sacking of the members of the National Working Committee as a nullity.

Constitutionally, the ex-Borno State governor’s tenure expires on Saturday.

But some officers of the party, like the National Secretary, Prof. Wale Oladipo, and the National Auditor, Adewole Adeyanju, including Sheriff, are in court, contesting their tenure.

They had secured a court order, restraining the party from filling their offices at the Port Harcourt convention.

Sheriff said the court action and the claim by the Independent National Electoral Commission that it would not monitor election into the above three offices were part of the reasons why he called off the convention.

He said he and members of his NWC were to meet at the party secretariat on Sunday.

Our correspondent gathered, however, that the policemen were deployed in the secretariat to prevent Sheriff and some members of his sacked NWC from meeting at the secretariat, Punch Newspaper reported

Sheriff had said the emergency meeting of his NWC would hold at the secretariat on Sunday (yesterday). He further stated that the constitution of the party does not provide for a caretaker committee.

In his argument, he said that the appointment of a caretaker committee to run the affairs of the party was alien to the PDP’s constitution.

His media aide, Mr. Inuwa Bwala, who spoke with journalists while the meeting being held by the Sheriff group was still ongoing on in Abuja on Sunday, added that the meeting was discussing the four court orders which he said compelled Sheriff to call off the convention.

He said, “In Port Harcourt, the court papers were served on the chairman. He decided to summon the meeting of the governors, members of the Board of Trustees and others. Before then, he said he had not been served the court papers.

“He told the gathering that there could be a problem if the party ignored the orders.

“He informed the governors that the convention should be deferred. But they (the governors) were angry because they had already pencilled down those they wanted to put in offices.

“To show our sincerity, we approached the court in Lagos to vacate the order, we were denied. As of Friday, all the court orders were subsisting.

“Because of the conflicting interest, some agreed, some did not. He (Sheriff) went ahead to meet with the NWC members and they said he should address a press conference to call off the convention.

“All members of the NWC members, except the Deputy National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, left. Their personal interest took the better of them. You can open the constitution of the party from the beginning to the end, you won’t find caretaker committee anywhere.

“If we are able to vacate the injunctions, we will meet and fix another date for the convention.”

Oladipo had earlier told Punch Newspaper correspondents that the group would address a press conference at the national secretariat.

However, the presence of policemen at the secretariat was said to have aborted the plan.

Report according to Punch Newspaper suggests that the policemen were drafted to the secretariat by the PDP governors.

The governors were said to have taken the action to prevent Sheriff and his faction from taking over the secretariat.

Excerpts From Punch Newspaper