By Aliyu Askira
Kano
Caretaker chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and former Kaduna state Governor, Alhaji Ahmed Makarfi, at the weekend, declared that he has resisted confrontation with Senator Ali Modu Sherriff over the leadership of party because “Sherriff can go to any extent to damage the image of the party and its respected leaders”.
Makarfi, who spoke with some journalist in his Kaduna residence, advised Nigerians to check his record as two-term governor of Kaduna state, and two terms Senator of the Federal Republic and compare it with Sherriff’s tenure as two-term governor of Borno state, adding that they were not in the same stock because “Sherriff’s antecedent clearly shows that he is a ruthless and violent person”.
Sherriff, according to Makarfi, “is a man that became Interim National Chairman of PDP on a platter of Gold, this is a man that ordinarily can be refer to as a statesman, but because our party asked him to step down for peace to reign, he took hundreds of touts to our National Headquarters in Abuja and spent the whole day there, until he gained entry into the secretariat.
“Honestly, this is far from Makarfi’s character. Those who know me know that I am a man of peace and wisdom. Go back to when Sherriff became Borno state governor, when he left, Borno was completely on fire.
“When I became Kaduna state governor, the state was facing series of religious crises, but Kaduna residents are in better positions to tell what I did as governor to bring lasting peace to the state.
“I can tell you that we sent more than 20 different committees to Modu Sherriff for dialogue, but he refuse to play ball, the man is out to destroy PDP”.
He noted that they would continue to use dialogue for Sherriff to see reason with them because there was no way they would allow a party that ruled Nigeria for 16 years to be destroyed by “somebody who can clearly be referred to as a stranger because when elders of PDP were funding the party, Sherriff’s name was nowhere in contention, but he became governor twice, and senator thrice from different party. He has no PDP blood in him.