• I remain chairman, Sheriff insists

By Lukman Olabiyi and Taiwo Amodu, Abuja

THE Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has announced intent to run the national secre­tariat of the party pending resolution of its leadership tussle.

Senator Walid Jubrin and Chief Ojo Madueke, chairman and BoT secre­tary, respectively, made the declaration yesterday, when they addressed the staff who resumed work after being shut out of the party’s secretariat for nine days by the police.

Regardless, former Borno State governor, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, whose National Working Committee (NWC) was dissolved penultimate weekend at the party’s national convention held in Port Harcourt , Rivers State insists he remains the national chairman.

The convention created a caretaker committee un­der the leadership of for­mer Kaduna State gover­nor, Ahmed Makarfi and Senator Ben Obi as chair­man and secretary, respec­tively to run the party’s af­fairs pending a new exco.

Last Tuesday, a declara­tory judgment of Justice Hussein Buba of the feder­al court in Lagos, however, upheld Sheriff’s NWC as the authentic leadership. That was countered, same day, by a Federal High Court in Port-Harcourt, which restrained Sheriff from parading himself as national chairman.

At Wadata Plaza, Mad­ueke said following con­flicting court orders on the leadership crisis, only the BoT, which he noted was not encumbered by any of the court judgment, could assume leadership of the party.

He told newsmen: “You would have realised that, in all the various court orders, no one has chal­lenged the authority of the BoT. The legal and politi­cal reality is that following the court orders, which affected the convention, there can be no vacuum and that’s what BoT wants to ensure.’’

Asked what becomes of resolutions of the peace meeting brokered last Thursday by his leader­ship, which backed the Makarfi team and further resolved that it would ac­commodate members of PDP Stakeholders Forum, Madueke said there were behind the scene moves to ensure that the agree­ments reached were not observed in the breach.

On his part, Jubrin said BoT is empowered by the party’s constitution to safeguard assets of the party and was committed to resolving the impasse.

“You are aware that this place was sealed by the po­lice; the reason was to keep the secretariat very safe.

“We, BoT, have been asked, under the consti­tution of the party, to be in charge of assets and li­abilities of PDP generally. It is in that respect that the Inspector General of Po­lice, Solomon Arase, hav­ing considered the impor­tance of our constitution, and having considered the importance of the staff of PDP headquarters here, ordered that this place be opened, and, not only be opened, but should be entrusted in the handsof BoT.

“Today, the BoT re­mains the only legal body now in the whole set up, and that is why we are here to play our role.

Meanwhile, in his re­sponse to the verdict of the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt, Sheriff told the court he remains the party’s chairman.

He described the “care­taker committee” headed by Makarfi as a group of “usurpers” and a “con­traption” that was set up in defiance of valid court orders.

Sheriff made this aver­ment in a court processes made available to news­men in Lagos through his lawyer, Ajibola Oluyede,

He is praying the court to hold that only he can preside over a convention or meeting where party leaders could be chosen.

According to Sheriff and Oladipo, the PDP national working committee, which is still under their control, did not instruct anyone to file the action on the party’s behalf.