the Peoples Democratic Party-led Federal
Government, have said that the forthcoming
national convention of the party may turn out to
be used as a burial day for the former ruling
party.
They said that unless the National Chairman of
the party, Sen. Ali Modu Sheriff retraced his
steps from contesting at the convention, the
coffin of the party would be nailed at the event.
The convention, which is slated for May 21 in
Port Harcourt, Rivers State, is to be used to
elect national officers of the party.
At the last meeting of the party’s National
Executive Committee, the offices were shared
among the six geo-political zones.
However, of all the offices, party members are
miffed that the office of the national chairman
was zoned to the North-East where Sheriff hails
from.
Sheriff, a former governor of Borno State, is the
only formidable candidate for the position from
the North-East.
Apart from the anger that the office was
primarily zoned to Sheriff who is a new entrant
to the party, majority of the members of the
party are also complaining that the same North-
East has produced the last two national
chairmen of the party.
These former chairmen are Bamanga Tukur and
a former Governor of Bauchi State, Adamu
Mu’azu.
The former ministers said that Sheriff must
drop his ambition or he would be the last
national chairman to lead a united PDP.
Spokesperson for the ex-ministers, who is also a
former Minister of National Planning, Dr.
Abubakar Sulaiman, said this while speaking with
two journalists in Abuja on Saturday.
He argued that any attempt by Sheriff to
consolidate his position at the convention would
spell doom for the party, adding that most
stakeholders would dump the PDP and “allow it
to continue to swim in impunity.”
He said concerned PDP members and
stakeholders would not keep quiet and allow
Sheriff to hijack the party because of his
ambition, adding that the right thing needed to
be done for the party to regain power at the
centre in 2019.
He said, “Ali Modu Sheriff is there to perform
the final funeral rites of the PDP. The May 21
national convention will mark the lying in state
of the PDP which will be forever. We will not
stop talking until the right thing is done.
“With what he is doing now, I think he is on a
mission. The national convention must not hold
on May 21. If it must hold, it will be the day of
celebration of funeral rites of the PDP.”
Sulaiman added that it was “the impunity” in the
PDP that led to the party’s defeat at the 2015
general elections, and urged party members
and leaders at all levels to end impunity and re-
position the party for future victory.
He described as political fault, the zoning of
both the chairmanship and 2019 presidential
ticket of the party to the North, claiming that “it
is the work of Ali Modu Sheriff and his cohorts.”
Meanwhile, the members of the Board of
Trustees are meeting Abuja on Monday to
deliberate on the crisis rocking the party.
Our correspondent gathered that the board
would also review the plan by Sheriff to amend
the party’s constitution and make it almost
impossible for the BoT to meet without his
approval.
The National Working Committee of the party
led by Sheriff has inserted a clause under the
yet-to-be approved amended constitution, that
the chairman of the BoT must inform the
national chairman of the PDP before calling for
the board’s meeting.
The majority of the members of the board have
decried this aspect among other ones, as
undemocratic and an act aimed at reducing the
powers and influence of the board.
Efforts made to get the reaction of the National
Publicity Secretary of the party, Olisa Metuh,
were not successful. Calls made to his mobile
telephone indicated that it was switched off. He
also did not respond to a text message sent to
him.
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