I feel betrayed – SAS He’s destabilising party – Wike
Police seal Wadata Plaza No factions – Ekweremadu
By Emeka Nze, Ezrel Tabiowo and Taiwo Odewale, Abuja
For now, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is in tatters with the ousted National Chairman, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, and the recently appointed caretaker committee chairman of the party, Senator Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi, struggling for the control of the party.
Also in the contest for the soul of the party are co-chairmen and national coordinators, former Deputy Senate President Ibrahim Mantu and former Minister of Education, Professor Tunde Adeniran, who both emerged at the Abuja parallel convention on Saturday.
Sheriff had the backing of the governors elected on the party platform to complete the North-east tenure, following the exit of Ahmadu Adamu Mua’azu shortly after the party’s loss in the 2015 election.
While Sheriff said, as a law abiding, he was suspending the Port Harcourt convention in compliance with the court order which stopped election into some offices, including office of the chairman, the governors and other stakeholders went ahead with the convention at the end of which a caretaker committee, headed by former Governor Makarfi was put in place.
And while this was on, the Concerned PDP Stakeholders also had their own convention in Abuja, where it elected both Mantu and Adeniran as co-chairmen.
Reacting to the development, Sheriff accused the duo of his erstwhile deputy, Prince Uche Secondus and the chairman of the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT), Senator Walid Jubrin of betrayal, for allegedly aiding the sacking of his National Working Committee.
Speaking through his media aide, Inuwa Bwala, the former governor said he remained opposed to what happened at the Port Harcourt convention, having announced the suspension after consulting with the NWC members.
He said: “Naturally, you will feel betrayed if you are working with some people, only for them to go behind you to work against what you all agreed to do.”
“Immediately the chairman (Sheriff) received another court injunction, he called a meeting of the National Working Committee and told them that it wasn’t safe to continue with the convention of the party, especially since the court had forbidden elections virtually into all the offices.
“He announced the suspension of the convention at a press briefing, only for some people to go behind and claim that there was convention. There was no organ of the party that was represented at the convention.
“The convention was cancelled, and it remains cancelled until such a time the matters in court are resolved, for us to convene another national convention,” he said.
The implication of this, Bwala said, “the court had said the office of the chairman would become vacant only in 2018, and that is parts of the reasons we shelved the convention,” said Mr. Bwala.
Bwala further said his boss was served with four contradictory court orders on the convention, adding that he later spoke with the governors on the need to defer the convention, unknown to him they were up to something.
He had called a press conference to announce the suspension of the convention, but noted that some of the NWC members left for Port Harcourt after the announcement, just as he queried Secondus decision to represent Sheriff at the convention.
But the chairman, planning committee of the Port Harcourt convention and Rivers state Governor, Nyesom Wike, said Sheriff was removed because his leadership was destabilising the party.
“All along, the crisis has been about the former acting chairman whose emergence was strongly opposed.
“This is destabilising the party and so we had to let him go. What is important is the party and not the individual. No sacrifice is too much for anyone to make as far as PDP is concerned,” Wike was quoted in a statement by his media aide, Simeon Nwakaudu.
While saying he had no regret supporting Sheriff in acting capacity because he was the best at that time, the governor said PDP would continue to grow “from strength to strength as it remains the only hope for the country.”
“We will not allow the PDP to die or suffer divisions under our watch. History will never forgive us if we watch the party die,” he said.
And in the midst of this controversy, heavily armed mobile and regular policemen numbering over 40 yesterday took over the Wadata Plaza Secretariat of the party, to avert possible break down of law and order.
The two ends of the adjoining streets of Michael Okpara and Dalaba, Wuse, were cordoned off with the police trucks.
Surprisingly, the usual security guards made up of policemen, men of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and other uniformed private security guards have been withdrawn.
When the reporters who were invited for a press briefing by the immediate past Secretary of the party, Prof. Adewale Oladipo, attempted to enter the premises, one of the policemen resisted.
Another, a sergeant, who spoke to our reporter, said “it was order from above specifically from the highest echelon of the party.”
The sergeant said they were drawn from their base in Kubwa, Abuja, on the orders of the Inspector General of Police Solomon Arase, and told that some party officials were to schedule a meeting for the secretariat.
Curiously, the Director-General of the Governors Forum, Mr. Osaro Onaiwu, was spotted at the secretariat and told our reporter that “I came to see what is happening at the party Secretariat.”
Onaiwu, who said he got wind of a planned parallel NWC meeting, wondering “Makarfi as the chairman of the caretaker committee has not called any meeting and therefore, none should hold in the party secretariat.”
Notwithstanding all of this, Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu is of the view that there are no factions within the party, but contending interests normal within any political family.
While describing the media reports on faction within PDP as “false, baseless, and misguided”, the lawmaker said the party would still return stronger.
He stated this yesterday at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, on arrival from Port Harcourt, where he attended the Saturday’s national convention of the party.
Ekweremadu, who was in company of Senator Maikarfi, said: “For the purpose of clarification, there are no factions within the PDP family as I speak.
What we have are contending interests. “Such is common in any party. Yes, there were some disagreements, but the good thing is that we have not allowed such disagreements to degenerate into a major crisis that would warrant factions.
“Instead, what happened in Port-Harcourt over the weekend further confirms PDP’s capacity to resolve issues in favour of laid down precepts and in the overall interest of our great party and nation. I am sure what happened in Port-Harcourt remains a disappointment for
those who were expectant of major crisis and factions in the PDP because we emerged from the convention more determined to change the change, to save our economy, reposition the electoral process, and make life more bearable for the suffering masses of Nigeria again.”
Senator Ekweremadu said there were no legal or judicial encumbrances to the convention or the emergences of the interim NWC.
He maintained that the convention did not conduct any elections, but simply acted within its constitutional powers as the highest decision-making organ of the PDP to appoint an interim NWC to oversee the affairs of the party and also conduct elections into the NWC positions within 90 days.
Ekweremadu, who congratulated the interim NWC, expressed confidence in the leadership qualities of Maikarfi and his team, and urged them to make the reconciliation of all aggrieved and divergent interests within the party their priority.
