By AbdulRaheem Aodu
Kaduna
Factional chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi, has expressed his faction’s resolve to resist plans to impose any candidate on the party in the forthcoming Ondo state governorship election.
Makarfi said in Kaduna at the weekend that approval of Mr. Jimoh Ibrahim as PDP candidate for the Ondo gubernatorial polls by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was an indication that the leader of the other PDP faction, Senator Ali Modu Sherriff, had abandoned the reconciliation moves in the party.
He accused Sherriff of playing to an alleged grand design by the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) party to win the election, noting that his caretaker committee would continue to deploy legal and political means to ensure the victory of the rightful PDP candidate in the state.
Makarfi, who lamented how Senator Sheriff had frustrated the peace and reconciliation moves in PDP, noted that the opposition party would reorganise itself as a formidable force to be reckoned with in the country within the next six months in order to salvage the nation from the hands of APC.
“We gave INEC relevant notices as stipulated by law, they observed our primaries and they took our nomination. It was reported that the other side did primaries at midnight in Ibadan, Oyo state. It was not covered by INEC or any authority for that matter. So, if a court of law gives INEC some orders that INEC, for whatever reason felt compelled at that time to comply with. It is unfortunate, that no such court of law in the first instance should give such an order.
“They are ignoring all the other laws relating to regulations and how candidates should emerge. It has been our principles not to personalise issues because our judicial system provides for appeal process and we have appealed.
Makarfi also said the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed for peace and reconciliation in the PDP by the factions in dispute has been violated by the Sheriff group.
“Before we signed that MOU and before the leader that convened us, the understanding we reached before him (and people can ask him, he will attest to that) was that the other side will join the caretaker committee.”
