The leadership crises rocking the Peoples Demicratic Party (PDP) took a new twist on Tuesday when its former acting National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus handed over the affairs of the party to the Ahmed Makarfi-led Caretaker Committee.
The handing-over ceremony which held on Tuesday at Wadata Plaza, under the guidance of the party’s Board of Trustees, was a follow-up of a reconcilitiatory meeting held at Ondo State Governor’s Lodge in Abuja on Monday night.
During the Monday parley, the BoT, Makarfi group, as well as the group loyal to a former Minister of Information, Jerry Gana, and some members of the immediate past National Working Committee, under Ali Modu Sheriff, agreed to work together and move the party forward.
Sheriff, who was said to be out of the country, was absent at the meeting.
“We are here to formally hand over to the caretaker committee appointed by the convention and we assure you that all politics is local, our leaders must go back to the grassroots, it is not enough to be in Abuja.
“We no longer have government, we no longer have security forces, we don’t have money, and so what matters now is the grassroot, the popularity of the leaders to be able to deliver,” Secondus said at the Tuesday ceremony.
Meanwhile, Sheriff has dissociated himself from the development at Wadata Plaza, accusing some individuals” of conducting a “secret handing-over” of his position in defiance of existing court orders.
According to a press statement issued on Tuesday evening by his spokesperson, Inuwa Bwala, Sheriff insisted that he was still in charge of the party.
He urged members of the public to disregard the puported handing-over ceremony, saying it was a nullity.
“Our attention has been drawn to the activities at the National secretariat of the PDP to the effect that some individuals masquerading as leaders have handed over to Ahmed Mohammed Makarki under a contraption called “caretaker committee”.
“We state as a matter of fact that going by proceedings still pending in the courts to the effect that Senator Ali Sheriff remains the National Chairman, whatever transpired was null, void and of no effect whatsoever.
“Sheriff has not mandated anybody, nor was his authority obtained by Uche Secondus, who has been parading himself as acting on behalf of the National Chairman.
“While we await the verdicts of the courts, we wish to state that Senator Ali Modu Sheriff is and remains the National Chairman of the party, until otherwise declared by the courts.
“We allowed the charade to go on at the secretariat without any form of challenge in strict obedience to careful pronouncement on the matter, but we must also state that there is no gathering of groups or individuals, however powerful, such groups or individuals may be, that can be said to take precedence over the law.
“For the avoidance of doubts, we state categorically that what took place at the PDP secretariat on Tuesday June 7, 2016 was a total disregard to court orders. And an extension of the impunity for which the party has been accused of and which has taken the party to where it is today.
“The public should disregard all the actions and pronouncements,” the statement read.
