Governors
Nyesom Wike of Rivers Sate and Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State ended their
vociferous support for Senator Ali Modu Sheriff as acting national
chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on a rather sour note
yesterday.
The duo almost came to blows after it became clear that they were riding a lame donkey.
While
Wike remained steadfast in his support for the retention of Sheriff as
chairman of the party at its convention in Port Harcourt, Fayose
sensationally backed out.
And thus ended the controversial three month tenure of the former Borno State governor in the saddle.
But Sheriff insisted that he remained chairman.
The
convention itself was aborted and a former governor of Kaduna State,
Senator Ahmed Makarfi was picked to replace Sheriff in a desperate
move to save the party from being submerged by the leadership crisis.
Makarfi heads a seven-man committee to steer the affairs of the party.
To assist Makarfi as national secretary is a former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, Senator Ben Obi.
Other
members of the committee are: Sen. Odion Ugbesie, Sen. Abdul Ningi, Mr.
Kabir Usman, Mr. Dayo Adeyeye and Alhaja Aisha Aliyu.
The
Makarfi-led caretaker committee will pilot the affairs of the party for
three months during which it is expected to elect the national working
committee, it was gathered.
The new chairman and secretary emerged
shortly after Sheriff announced the suspension of the convention,
citing three court orders.
The motion to dissolve the party’s NEC
and NWC was moved by Mr. Austin Opara, a former Deputy Speaker, House of
Representatives and seconded by Mr. Emeka Ihedioha, also a former
Deputy Speaker of the house.
Gov. Nyesom Wike of Rivers and
Chairman of the party‘s National Convention Committee put a the question
and the motion was affirmed by the delegates.
The convention also
approved another motion to set aside decisions taken by the NWC and
zoning of its presidential candidate for 2019 election to the north.
The motion was moved by Dr. Babangida Aliyu, a former governor of Niger and seconded by Gov. Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta.
“We want to be seen as a law-abiding party,” Sheriff told reporters, reading from a prepared text.
“We will ask the delegates to go home,” he said.
The
other faction of the party at its own convention in Abuja picked
Ibrahim Mantu as national chairman and Professor Tunde Adeniran as
national Secretary.
The support of Sheriff’s main backers
–Governors Nyesom Wike (Rivers) and Ayodele Fayose (Ekiti) counted for
nothing in the face of report from Abuja that the Professor Jerry
Gana-led Concerned PDP Stakeholders were forging ahead with their
parallel convention.
Only on Friday night, Wike had mocked Gana and co as inconsequential in PDP.
He derided the court injunctions obtained by their supporters to stop the Port Harcourt convention as fraudulent.
Fayose
himself had dismissed the Concerned PDP Stakeholders as spent forces
who should yield the ground to younger elements to run the affairs of
the party.
Trouble however began after the PDP governors and party
leaders were briefed on two court orders served on the Sheriff-led
National Working Committee.
The first court order was an
interlocutory injunction from a court in Lagos restraining the party
from conducting election into the offices of the National Chairman,
National Secretary and National Auditor until 2018.
The second was
the ruling of an FCT High Court asking the party not to declare 18
positions vacant until 2017 leaving only the office of the National
Financial Secretary to be voted for at the convention.
But party
leaders insisted that Sheriff’s Executive’s tenure ended yesterday and
tinkered with the option of an Interim Caretaker Committee.
Instead, Sheriff wanted his NWC to remain with a proclamation of the extension by the National Convention.
A
well placed party source said that an enlarged meeting of PDP governors
and leaders followed yesterday to consider three issues:
To cancel or postpone the convention in the light of the court order;
To extend the tenure of Sheriff’s administration; and
To put in place an Interim Caretaker Committee
“At the session, Sheriff and Wike maintained that the idea of a
caretaker committee was alien to the PDP Constitution and it would
amount to illegality,” the source said.
“They said having a caretaker committee would lead the party into a deeper crisis and defiance of the two court orders.
“They said since PDP is known for its adherence to the rule of law, the National Convention should be postponed.”
But Fayose and other governors rejected the proposal from Wike and Sheriff’s NWC.
Another source said: “At a point, tension peaked at the meeting leading to a shouting match between Wike and Fayose.
“It
degenerated to a level that Wike and Fayose were near fisticuffs. But
at the end of the day, most of the governors and PDP leaders agreed on
going ahead with the convention and the setting up of a caretaker
committee headed by Ahmed Makarfi.”
Stunned by the decision, Sheriff opted to call a press briefing where he announced the cancellation of the National Convention.
Sheriff later left Port Harcourt in the company of former Governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido.
A
member of the NWC said: “The appointment of any interim or caretaker
committee is an exercise in futility because it is alien to our
constitution. It is also in defiance of court orders and the national
chairman of the party did not convene the convention which set up the
interim administration.
“The consensus was that the national convention should be postponed. So, the so-called convention was unauthorized.”
At
a hurriedly convened press conference, Sheriff said: “After seeing the
challenges confronting our party, taking into account the decision of
the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), not to supervise
the election to the offices of chairman, secretary and others, based on
the order of the court.
“On account of the fact that our party is
responsible, law abiding with high respect for judiciary and courts, we
do here by state and put off the national convention of our party from
taking place. “We have suspended it until when all the court cases are g
resolved.
“The issues are so many. We have about three different court cases.
“From
Abuja, where it says that the tenure of the 17 members of the National
Working Committee has not expired, it will be expiring on the 17 of
June, 2017 and another one in Lagos which says that the tenure of the
chairman, secretary and auditor will expire in 2018.
“INEC also wrote that they will not supervise the election in Port Harcourt.
“Taking
into consideration of all these, if we go out and conduct elections in
Port Harcourt, the NEC of the party will be charged with contempt of
court. We have asked for a stay of proceedings in Lagos and the court
denied that also.
“Therefore, the best and safest way is to put
off the convention. Therefore, we have suspended the convention until
all the court cases are resolved. We will then announce another date for
the convention.”
There had been anxiety among delegates when the convention did kick off at 2pm as expected.
Although
the host chairman, Felix Obuah, told reporters that the exercise would
still come up , delegates became weary when the Governors , who were
in Port – Harcourt ,failed to show up at the venue.
Sources said amid the tension communication was going on between the factions in Port Harcourt and Abuja.
The
PDP National Assembly caucus was said to have suggested to the
governors the need to avert a possible balkanization of the party by
postponing the exercise.
Said one source, “Reality dawned on the
Governors that they could not insist on the convention, especially the
candidature of Sheriff, without some dire consequences. The Gana group
was contacted and it insisted that it had no problem with the Governors,
but with the candidature of Sheriff.
“Many party chieftains also
deliberately shunned Port – Harcourt and that was also worrisome to the
Governors. It was realized that the people threatening a parallel
convention could not be ignored because they also cut across the 36
states.”
However, a way out was found out of the logjam when both
factions agreed on the setting up of a caretaker committed to steer the
affairs of the party till July when a new convention will be held.
It was not immediately certain what role Sheriff will play in the new arrangement.
Both factions agreed to forge unity and reconciliation in the interest of the party.
Some
of those at the Port Harcourt convention were the Chairman of the PDP
Board of Trustees, Sen. Walid Jibril, Deputy President of the Senate,
Chief Ike Ekweremadu, ex-President of the Senate, Chief David Mark,
ex-Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Emeka Ihedioha, 12
Governors including Henry Seriake Dickson, Ben Ayade, Darius Ishaku,
Ifeanyi Okowa, Ayo Fayose, Udom Emmanuel, David Umahi, and Nyesom Wike
among others.
Meanwhile, the Gana faction held its convention in Abuja without electing officials.
The group converged on an events centre in the capital city with delegates from the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
The faction did not elect officers, ostensibly in deference to court orders restraining the PDP from holding the convention.
Instead,
the group ratified its 56-member Steering Committee with a former
Deputy Senate President, Ibrahim Mantu and a former Education Minister,
Prof. Tunde Adeniran as co-chairmen. Gana retained the position of
National Coordinator.
Mantu announced the decision of the faction
not to elect national officials, saying members were still open to
reconciliation with the Sheriff faction in the overall interest of the
PDP.
Restating the group’s opposition to Sheriff as national
chairman, Mantu lamented the culture of impunity, disdain for democratic
norms and utter disregard for the party’s constitution. The same trend,
he said, led to the party’s loss of the 2015 general election.
His
words: “We view the purported extension of the tenure of the current
National Working Committee of the party as null and void as the National
Executive Committee cannot grant such extension under the party
constitution.
“Therefore, all actions of the Ali Modu Sheriff led
executive, including the purported congresses and convention in Port
Harcourt are null and void and an exercise in futility.
“The
action of the National Executive Committee of the party in selecting Ali
Modu Sheriff as chairman was in gross violation of the established
procedure for the selection.
“The selection of the chairman for
the unexpired term of the Northeast zone started with nominations from
states in the zone, Sheriff was not nominated by any state caucus and
hence not qualified to be selected.”
He added that any decision to
go ahead with the Port Harcourt convention would amount to disobedience
to valid court orders stopping the exercise.
It was gathered that
botched attempts were made yesterday by the Chairman of the PDP
Governors Forum, Governor Segun Mimiko to prevail on the stakeholders to
shelve their separate session in Abuja.
The stakeholders however went ahead with the parallel convention.
A
top source, who spoke in confidence, said: “Mimiko spoke at length with
Gana and others on Saturday morning that we should not conduct our own
election in Abuja.
“The Ondo State governor said the PDP governors
were ready to concede to our demands which border on the stepping aside
by ex- Governor Modu Ali Sheriff.
“Even on Friday, they placed a
chartered aircraft on standby at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport to
convey members of the stakeholders to Port Harcourt but we stood our
ground based on principle that Sheriff cannot reform PDP.
“But we
did not want to take anything for granted at all because when we met
with the representatives of the governors about six days ago, they were
adamant that Sheriff must continue.
“Those who had audience with us were Governors David Umahi (Ebonyi), Ayo Fayose (Ekiti) and Nyesom Wike (Rivers).”
Some
party stalwarts at the alternative convention in Abuja were a former
Deputy President of the Senate, Ibrahim Mantu, ex-Governor Achike
Udenwa, ex-Acting Governor Garba Umar, 15 ex-Ministers including Hajiya
Inna Ciroma, Abubakar Suleiman Olanrewaju Suleiman Abubakar, Shetiima
Mustapha, Arc. Bunu Sheriff, Prof. Jerry Gana, Tanimu Kabir Turaki, John
Odey, Bala Mohammed, Ishola Sarafa, Adamu Maina Waziri, and Amb. Tunde
Adeniran
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