From Fred Itua, Abuja

SENATORS and members of the House of Representa­tives elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have openly sup­ported newly-constituted na­tional caretaker committee, headed by one of their own, Senator Ahmed Makarfi.

This is coming as the In­dependent National Elec­toral Commission (INEC) has formally recorgnised the PDP caretaker committee. The committee, which paid a courtesy call on the PDP National Assembly Caucus, yesterday, said it had already met with the electoral body.

In a veiled reference to declarations by the former national chairman, Ali Modu Sheriff, that the caretaker committee was illegal, “on Tuesday, we attended our first official engagement af­ter taking over.

“It was a meeting con­vened by INEC.

“And, for us to attend a meeting convened by INEC and make useful contribu­tions, that should tell every­body what that means,” Ma­karfi said.

He told lawmakers that his committee would not do the bidding of any interests and pointed out that the com­mittee’s assignment was to reconcile all aggrieved forces and eventually, conduct the national convention.

In his remark during the courtesy visit, Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, said: “We appeal to you to carry everybody along. Let all the stakeholders be involved to ensure that we are really democratic.

“Nigeria expects so much from us and we should not disappoint them. We want to assure you of our support, our solidarity.”

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Senate Minority Leader, Godswill Akpabio commend­ed members of the commit­tee for not demonstrating the attitude of selfish politi­cians.

“You told Nigerians un­equivocally that you were not elected national chair­man, but a commiittee set up in line with the constitution of the party.

“That showed clearly that PDP is a party that believes in the rule of law.

“The party has the power to set up any committee in­cluding the National Work­ing Committee.

“It can even assign the functions of the national convention to that commiit­tee, which was the case with your committtee,” Akpabio said.

Before now, Sheriff had described the handing over of the affairs of the party to the caretaker committee as illegal, null and void.

In a statement by his me­dia adviser, Inuwa Bwala, Sheriff insisted the handover exercise was null and void.