PDP BoT Leaders Love Money, Sheriff Says

He said the Board, which is headed by Senator Walid Jibrin, should be sacked and replaced with more focused leaders.

Court-sacked National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, has accused the leadership of the party's Board of Trustees of having an insatiable appetite for money.

He said the Board, which is headed by Senator Walid Jibrin, should be sacked and replaced with more focused leaders.

Mr. Sheriff, who stated this in a press statement in Abuja on Tuesday, also accused the Board of Trustees of being known for making provocative and unguarded statements.

Mr. Sheriff's faction of the PDP was reacting to the meeting of the Board, held in Abuja on Monday, where some drastic decisions were made.

Chief among them was that the next national convention of the party would be held in Abuja and a new national convention planning committee would be appointed. The Board also passed a vote of confidence in the Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led national caretaker committee.

While Mr. Sheriff was not against the first two recommendations, he vehemently opposed the vote of confidence in Mr. Makarfi's caretaker committee, which he described as the major problem of the party.

Deputy National Chairman to Mr. Sheriff, Cairo Ojuogboh, who spoke the mind of his boss in a statement in Abuja, said both Mr. Makarfi and the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Mr. Jibrin, must be sacked.

Mr. Sheriff’s statement is reproduced below, unedited: 

OUR POSITION

Having deliberated on the reported outcome of the Board of Trustees meeting of 29th August, 2016 we have resolved to state as follows, that the resolutions feel short of the decision reached with the Dickson/Mantu reconciliation committee.

The agreement we had is that Sheriff should Chair a National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting where Makarfi will attend as a member of the BOT, at the meeting, a Chairman of Convention Committee will be agreed upon, a new Convention Committee setup, including all other sub-committees:  Zoning, Finance, Accreditation etc.

The venue of the Convention will be in Abuja, where a new leadership of the party will emerged, internal democracy will be respected and confidence will return to the party.

And we had hoped that opportunity will be given where everybody will meet under one umbrella and shake hands and will see the PDP reemerged for the challenges ahead.

We therefore state as follow:

We completely reject the vote of confidence past on the illegal caretaker committee because a committee that has failed twice to successfully organize a convention on two occasion is a failure.

Consequently, we can now confidently inform the general public that well meaning Nigerians have been urging Senator Makarfi to resign to save democracy. We therefore call on his friends and associates and family to advice him to do the needful and resign now to save multiparty Democracy in Nigeria and stop impunity that has been the bone of Internal Democracy.

That the BOT Chairman, Senator Walid Jubril chairmanship has brought crisis to the Party. In any case his tenure has expired as he has spent more than 10 years as Secretary and Chairman BOT which runs contrary to the Constitution. A Party where we have imminently qualified persons like Senator David Mark, Babangida Aliyu and others cannot be led by unstable individuals controlled by the love for money.

That the source of irritation in the Party is the still-born illegal caretaker committee and the Board of Trustee should have advised that the illegality be addressed.

Whereas the National Working Committee had agreed terms with the Reconciliation Committee on numerous occasions but the BOT will go public and made misguided and provocative statements, the leadership of the BOT must immediately be reconstituted to move the Party forward.

We thank the numerous PDP faithfuls nationwide and Nigerians for their understanding and patience. We make bold to state that until we get it right and check impunity, the Nigerian opposition party won’t perform as required.

As we move towards reconciliation, PDP should prevent any person or group from hijacking the party. Be rest assured that the PDP will emerge stronger as we note that impunity marred the party’s success in 2015 general elections.

Signed:

Dr. Cairo Ojougboh
Ag Deputy National Chairman
For the National Chairman

BY SAHARA REPORTERS