The National Chairman of
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Sen. Ali Modu Sheriff, and the National
Caretaker Committee Chairman of the party, led by Senator Ahmed Makarfi, are
engaged in a war of words again, just few days after they reached an
understanding to bury their differences.
What has triggered the latest public spat began with
Sheriff’s threat to sue anyone, including media houses, who referred
to Sen. Ahmed Makarfi-led National Caretaker Committee, as a faction of the
party. Allied to this was Sheriff’s declaration of job vacancies in the party
secretariat.
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| Sheriff, left, and Makarfi. |
In a statement by his deputy, Dr Cairo Ojoughoh, Sheriff
said the job vacancies declared were preparatory to
filling positions in the party’s National Secretariat as the old staff
decided to abandon their work even when he appealed to them.
But the Makarfi group smelled a rat and asked the old staff
to ignore Sheriff’s threat and his seven-day ultimatum to return party
properties.
“His threat against
our hard working staff should therefore be ignored and treated with utmost
contempt coming from a lawless impostor”, said Dayo Adeyeye, the publicity
secretary, who responded on behalf of the Makarfi group..
Both Sheriff and Makarfi had on Thursday signed an
undertaking with the PDP National Reconciliation Committee,led by Gov. Seriake
Dickson of Bayelsa to cease fire.
They both pledged to work together with the reconciliation
committee for the restoration of genuine peace to the party.
Sheriff, who described the Makarfi-led committee as illegal
group, said that by the pronouncement of the Court of Appeal in Port Harcourt,
on Feb. 17, such “a group” was not supposed to be in existence.
He cautioned media houses not to refer to the Makarfi group
as faction, saying an appeal is not a stay of execution, insisting that the
group was illegal.
Sheriff also warned Makarfi and his group to stop
interfering in the affairs of the party.
“Makarfi should behave
himself. He should not interfere in our business, because we are not interested
in his private business.
“Any further careless
statement from him will force us to reconsider our earlier peace agreement.
“We have already
employed staff who are running the bureaucracy efficiently. If Makarfi so
desires, he should keep the old staff, just as he is doing now.
“We have had enough
and enough is enough of this,” Sheriff said.
He added that his leadership was preparing to complete state
congresses where necessary and working hard on planned national convention.
“We will not be
distracted by inconsequential issues from our set objective to return the
party to the grassroots.
“We must prevent
anybody with the agenda of killing the party, especially those, who were
brought to the party by those, who have already decamped to other parties.”
Sheriff, warned the old PDP staff, who still have the
party’s property in their possession to return them immediately.
“They should return
them within the seven days grace or we will be left with no other option than
to hand them over to the police,” Sheriff said.
The Makarfi group fired back and urged the staff and party
stakeholders to ignore Sheriff, saying that his threats were those
of “a lawless impostor.
“We went out of our
way few days ago to reach accommodation with them even when some of our top
leaders had serious misgivings about any type of talk with them given their
unreliability,” Makarfi said.
He said that his committee showed its goodwill, while
Sheriff-led National Working Committee (NWC) demonstrated their bad faith.
“We have always known
that Sheriff and his co-travellers especially, Cairo Ojuogbo, were never men of
honour with whom one can reach any agreement.
“But we tagged along
to avoid being accused of unnecessary intransigence.
“Since the leopard
cannot change its spot, it is now very clear that no agreement or political
solution can be reached with these bunch of people with huge integrity
deficit.”
He described Ojougboh as an impostor and a rabble rouser in
a non existent NWC, saying Sheriff has no men to constitute an NWC with the
required constitutional quorum.
“His threat against
our hard working staff should therefore be ignored and treated with utmost
contempt coming from a lawless impostor.
“For the education of
Sheriff and his cohorts, our Appeal at the Supreme Court is already on.
“To that extent, the
position and status of the National Caretaker Committee remains completely
unaltered.
“Since they cannot
comprehend even very simple matters, we will use a simple analogy.
“If a Governor loses
at the election petitions tribunal and at the Court of Appeal, does he cease to
be a Governor even when his appeal is pending before the Supreme Court?
“Would the civil
servants then refuse to serve him?” Makarfi asked.
He explained that the position of the law was that he would
remain the governor.
He added that all government employees would continue to
service his government until otherwise determined by the Supreme Court.
Makarfi added that his committee members have tried
strenuously to reach Gov. Dickson to report this deliberate violation of the
truce by the Sheriff Group but they were not able to get through to him.
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Source: The News Guru
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