By Omoniyi Salaudeen
THE stakeholders in the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) must be ruing the day they held Port Harcourt convention where the decision to dissolve the National Working Committee (NWC) headed by Senator Ali Modu Sheriff was taken and subsequently set up a Caretaker Committee led by Senator Ahmed Makarfi to take charge of the affairs of the party. Like the proverbial bird that perched on the line, neither Makarfi-led group nor its rival faction has enjoyed any modicum of peace since that episode occurred to give the party a true sense of direction.
Thursday’s fisticuff between supporters of the two contending power groups marked the anti-climax of the raging supremacy battle that followed the Port Harcourt convention. Both Makarfi and Sheriff have been at each other’s throat, trying to seize control of the national headquarters of the party since the NWC was proclaimed dissolved. This came to a crescendo on Wednesday when some people believed to be supporters of Sheriff stormed Wadata House, Abuja, to take over the secretariat. Shortly after a meeting held by the Board of Trustees with the governors and the Makarfi-led Caretaker Committee on Thursday to review the latest development, a fresh drama ensued, as supporters of the groups struggled for the occupation of the party secretariat.
Sheriff was the former chairman of the PDP before the party’s national convention held in Port Harcourt on May 21. Before leaving the Rivers State capital that day, he announced the cancellation of the convention, citing court orders. Other leaders of the party, however, ignored him and went ahead with the convention and also announced his sack and the appointment of a caretaker committee headed by former Kaduna State governor, Ahmed Makarfi.
While Port Harcourt was going on, another group led by a former Minister of Information, Jerry Gana, also held a parallel convention in Abuja and announced a former Deputy Senate President, Ibrahim Mantu, as the new chairman of the PDP. Following the conflicting claims to the leadership of the party by three separate camps, the Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase, ordered a sealing of the secretariat in order to avoid clashes.
Last week, some leaders of the party announced that a reconciliation meeting had resolved all the issues, paving the way for the resumption of Mr. Makarfi and his committee at the secretariat. They also claimed that Sheriff’s group had agreed to the reconciliation moves. But shortly afterwards, Sheriff dissociated himself from the meeting and insisted that he remained the national chairman of the party until 2018 based on a valid court order until otherwise decided by another court of competent jurisdiction. Consequently, he led his group to take over the secretariat on Monday, but was prevented from gaining entry into the premises by security operatives. However, after several spirited efforts and alleged intervention from top command of the police, he finally gained entry into the premises. He explained to his supporters that the ex-parte order obtained from a Port Harcourt court which earlier retrained him from parading himself as chairman had expired. He dismissed the Caretaker Committee as an illegality, saying the party must obey valid orders from the courts.
He said: “You are all witnesses to the effect that, while the court procedures are still going on, a lot of illegalities; in clear defiance of the law have been taking place in the party under the guise of a contraption called caretaker Committee.
“I had hoped that, for once, the PDP, which have been accused of promoting impunity and declining lawful orders will purge itself, which informed my decision to obey the courts.
“Permit me to state that lawful pronouncements by courts, no matter how inconvenient they may be are to be obeyed, no matter one’s position. And no person should be seen to be above the pronouncements of competent courts of this country.”
By all his actions, Sheriff has inadvertently become a thorn in the flesh of the PDP, even to the astounding disbelief and embarrassment of those who allegedly propped him up as chairman. Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State and his counterpart in Akwa Ibom State, Emmanual Udom, were among the interest groups that worked for his emergence. And until they successfully maneuver the party out of its current crisis, they would certainly continue to rue the day they brought him to the party and gave him so much confidence to lead the party.
On one hand, there are those who believe that the embattled former chairman was being used as a mole by the ruling APC to destroy the PDP. A former minister of Transport and member of the BOT of the party, Chief Ebenezer Babatope, said rumours were rife that ‘Sheriff is an in-law to President Muhammadu Buhari.’ As such, he said, all his actions were tailored towards achieving the objectives of his backers. His words: “The rumour in town is that Sheriff is an in-law to President Muhammadu Buhari and it has not been denied by anyone. I am not accusing President Buhari of having a hand in what is going on. In fact, he was even alleged to have said; even though I didn’t hear it, that he would go beyond the Nigeria police in his attempt to hold on to power. What is the meaning of that? If you go beyond the IGP, it means you want to make the IG look stupid. That is why people are suggesting that APC has a hand in what the man is doing. In any case, when the man was in APC, he didn’t do any of these things there.”
In another twist, some people say Sheriff is overtly pursuing his ambition to take a shot at the presidency in 2019 on the platform of the PDP. He, therefore, feels that it is only by holding on to power that he could actualize his dream. “Some people have said that he is trying to contest presidential election on the platform of the PDP in 2019. The PDP is not a party of rascals, ruffians, gangsters and what have you. We have regulations, we have guarding principles, and we will never compromise them or bend them to the whims and caprices of anyone. We know that those who are supporting him are experts in going to the court and taking their case to a particular judge who has been known for his notoriety for giving judgment to them to destroy the party’s activities, but they also will fail. He is a stranger to our party; he doesn’t belong to our party. Those of them who brought him to our party would be regretting now that they brought a wrong person who has been saddled with the responsibility of destroying the PDP,” Babatope added.
Although only two key members of the dissolved NWC are still said to be working with Sheriff, Prof Olawale Oladipo, national secretary of the PDP and ex-national auditor, Alhaji Adewole Adeyanju, sources say majority of staffers at the party’s secretariat who are being owed months of salaries are more sympathetic to the former chairman. Unconfirmed report says they have already been assured of the payment of the backlog of their salaries as soon as Sheriff settles in office.
When Babatope was asked to comment on the rumour , he said: I am not in Abuja now, I stay more in my village. When I have something to do, I shuttle between Lagos and my village. So, I cannot say whether the party is owing workers’ salaries. But even if they are being owed, the party is credible enough to clear the backlog as soon as the crisis is over. How many of them are remaining? He only has two members of the NWC with him. All other members of the Exco are with the party. Almost 99.9 percent of supporters of the party throughout the country are also with Makarfi-led committee. So, Modu Sheriff and his group are fighting majority of the party and they will never succeed.”
Meanwhile, Sheriff has dissociated himself from the alleged forceful occupation of the secretariat by his supporters. A statement made available to newsmen in Abuja by his Special Adviser, Media and Publicity, Hon. Inuwa Bwala, read: “The National Chairman of the PDP, Senator Sheriff, wishes to condemn as shameful act of hooliganism and brigandage being employed by the illegal Caretaker Committee led by Senator Makarfi. He views the sack of the secretariat of the party on Wednesday by hoodlums on the directive of the so-called Caretaker Committee as a sad reminder of the days of impunity and brigandage for which sponsors of the Caretaker Committee had been known over the years.”
“While calling on his supporters to remain calm and law-abiding in the face of the various provocations by allowing the law to take its course, Senator Sheriff implored security agencies to stop taking sides in political matters, as demonstrated by some policemen deployed to secure the PDP secretariat.”
“Meanwhile, the national chairman views the acts of desperation on the part of the so-called Caretakers Committee to confer a semblance of legitimacy on Senator Makarfi and his co-travellers as unfortunate, seeing they have resorted to blatant lies and blackmail of the person of the national chairman of the PDP, Senator Sheriff.”
Also exonerating Makarfi from any act of violence, Babatope said: “It is not true that Makarfi group organized an invasion of our secretariat. I have heard first hand report from those who were there and I am convinced in my mind that nothing of such happened. The young men that went there did so because they were annoyed by what Sheriff was doing. I don’t encourage violence and I will never encourage violence. But they were annoyed by the increasing activities of Ali Modu Sheriff and his group to bring the party to its knee.”
Though he admitted that the youths who invaded the secretariat were loyal supporters of Makarfi, he denied any involvement of the caretaker committee in the drama that took place at Wadata House. “Being sympathetic to Makarfi does not mean he encouraged them. I know Senator Makarfi very well. He is such a gentle man who does not believe in violence. Makarfi will be the last person who will encourage or sponsor action of people who were protesting. Ben Obi, the secretary of the party is also a complete gentle man. And, of course, we all know Dayo Adeyeye, a seasoned and respected journalist, he will never support or sponsor violence,” he said.
In the face of the intractable crisis facing the party, Governor Fayose of Ekiti State still strongly believes that the PDP will get over its crisis and give credible opposition to the government in power. Fayose and his group were instrumental to the leadership tussle that has literally brought the party to its knee.