Political Briefs
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THE warring groups in the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, have confirmed that the factions have entered discussion to end the crisis rocking the party. Cairo Ojougbo, a key member of Senator Ali Modu Sheriff group and the former PDP national vice-chairman (South-South) who addressed journalists in Abuja, on Thursday, July 7, confirmed that his faction has finally entered into discussions with the leadership of the party in order to end the crisis that has befallen the main opposition party.
Speaking on the lingering face-off between Sheriff and the mainstream PDP leadership over the rightful claimant to the chairmanship of the party, Ojuogbo said though the former national chairman still sees himself as being legitimately in office, he was ready to pursue dialogue to resolve the crisis.
“I want to make this point clear, the caretaker committee led by Senator Ahmed Makarfi and the Sheriff-led PDP have been discussing. We have been looking for ways to make peace. People like (Dayo) Adeyeye who want this crisis to continue, have been talking anyhow, they have their own personal agenda,” he said.
On the call made by Dayo Adeyeye, spokesman of the PDP caretaker committee, for the arrest of Sheriff on contempt charges, Ojuogbo said there was nothing of such since Sheriff had already appealed the Port Harcourt Federal High Court ruling. “I want to make it categorically clear that we have a judgment that is a point blank judgment that says that it is only Sheriff that will submit the names of candidates for the governorship elections in Edo and Ondo States.
“It also further says that Sheriff is the recognised chairman of PDP. The judgment they are celebrating in Port Harcourt, of course, is the judgment of the ‘Emperor of Ikwere’ (Governor Nyesom Wike). We have appealed it and we have also asked for a stay of execution. So it is neither here nor there. But the chairman of PDP, Alhaji Ali Modu Sheriff has some other subsisting judgments in his favour, and if anybody is to be arrested, it is Adeyeye who is making allusions that people will be arrested.
“I know that Makarfi will not make such a statement, he is a gentleman and not somebody given to such utterances, so I want to excuse him. If such statement came from Makarfi, Ali Modu Sheriff would have known what to do to address it properly. Sheriff wants to return the party to the people. He doesn’t want only the governors to sit down in their rooms and write the names of candidates and submit them to INEC. That is the root of the crisis we are having today in the PDP and Ali Modu Sheriff is ready to address it.
“This is the only time the chairman of the PDP is saying no to the governors. Impunity must be addressed; anybody who went shopping for judgment, or used state money to go and buy a judgment, the person is on his own. Ali Modu Sheriff will not be involved in such cases, and if you win such cases we will wait for you at the Appeal Court,” he said.
The new reconciliatory move came on the heels of the decision of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to study all the rulings of the courts in respect to the conflict in the PDP with a view to taking a position on which of the factions to recognise. It was learnt that INEC’s latest move was targeted at resolving the PDP leadership tussle before the deadline for the submission of names of candidates for the governorship election in Edo State.
— Jul 18, 2016 @ 01:00 GMT
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