State chairmen pledge allegiance to Ali Modu Sheriff faction

The power tussle in Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has taken a new turn as state chairmen from the 6 south-west states have pledged support for the embattled Ali Modu Sheriff.

This happened yesterday when some state chairmen of the opposition party paid Sheriff a solidarity visit in Abuja, to pledge their support for him.

The former Governor of Borno State who has insisted that he remains the National Chairman of the PDP, reckons that he still has up to 4 years to spend in his tenure but would step down when the national leadership of the party asks him to.

Sheriff said, “I’m ready to go. I’m not saying I must be the national chairman at all costs. I was invited to lead the party and the election that brought me to office was done at the NEC Hall of the party at its national secretariat.”

“Four other aspirants contested against me at the NEC meeting. The governors invited me among others to be considered by the NEC and the NEC sat and elected me as the national chairman of the party.”

“There’s nothing personal about my being there or individual pride about it. It is about the rule of law and the rule of law must not give way to illegalities.”

Seriff further explained that he did not call off the May 21 convention of the party for his own personal reasons but because of the court pronouncement against the convention.

He also said his tenure would end in 2018.

“Ahmed Mu’azu got his election when former President Goodluck Jonathan was elected as the party’s presidential candidate in 2015. I replaced him. So, my tenure would expire after four years in office.”

“I have no immunity, I was just a former governor and I didn’t want to go to jail for refusing the order of the court,” he added.

One of state chairmen, the chairman of the party in Ogun State, Adebayo Dayo, said he and his five other colleagues from the South-West, were solidly behind Sheriff.

“I’m here on behalf of the six chairmen from the South-West. Sheriff was elected. We were at Port-Harcourt and we left when the convention was cancelled.”

“We have decided to follow the rule of law. The six of us have agreed to follow the law. There’s no caretaker committee in our constitution, we, the South-West chairmen are with Sheriff.”

Meanwhile, the state chairman of Adamawa, Abdulrahman Boboye, said the state chairmen agreed to meet Sheriff and the chairman of the party’s National Caretaker Committee, Ahmed Makarfi, with the hope of finding a lasting solution to the crisis in the party.

“We met yesterday and we resolved that we would speak to Makarfi and Sheriff. Makarfi told us that he was ready to step aside as well if the party decides so.”