Leadership / Nigeria: A meeting of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday asked the former national chairman of the party, Ali Modu Sheriff, and other party members to drop the court cases against the party.
This was the resolution reached at an enlarged meeting of party organs including the Board of Trustees (BoT), Governors’ Forum; National Assembly caucus, former ministers and PDP Concerned Stakeholders led by former minister of information, Prof. Jerry Gana.
While the Senator Ahmed Markarfi-led national Caretaker Committee inaugurated at the Rivers convention attended the enlarged meeting, Sheriff failed to show up.
Sheriff and Markarfi had made a surprise appearance at an earlier meeting of the BoT, but they were urged to excuse them after about 10 minutes, to enable the members deliberate over the matters affecting party.
The two contending parties to the leadership conflict were asked to return later in the day for an enlarged meeting of party organs. However, while Markarfi returned for the meeting, Sheriff was absent.
Reading the resolution of the meeting, the secretary of the party’s BoT, Chief Ojo Maduekwe, disclosed that a special reconciliation committee had been set up to reach out to all contending groups, including Sheriff.
He also stated that the Ibrahim Mantu-led Concerned Stakeholders group had embraced the Ahmed Markarfi-led caretaker committee.
Maduekwe said that the combined meetings asked all warring groups to sign an undertaking to make peace and not to involve external agents, like the courts, in matters relating to the internal workings of the party.
He said: “In the spirit of working together and resolving all outstanding issues, all matters that are in court, the parties have been advised that – because of the extant regulation of our party’s constitution that, no matter what, you should go to court without exhausting internal mechanism – all matters that are in court should be withdrawn immediately as indication of good faith and commitment to party discipline and unity.
“The various parties are also expected to make a commitment to maintain peace and undertake not to resort to external agencies to meddle with what is solely internal party affair.”
When asked about measures the party would take on members who disobey, he said: “There is a re-branded PDP in place now. And I think many of our members are aware that it is disobedience to party norms and party discipline that made us lose the last election.
“Now that we are determined to be a new PDP, we expect that our members will respect the party’s constitution and not go to court until the internal mechanisms have been exhausted, because it is a form of impunity to ignore the party’s constitution and rush to court. What shall we do if we are disobeyed? We will cross that bridge when we get there.”
