Contrary to expectations, the much awaited national convention of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) took a dramatic twist yesterday as the party chieftains tactically sacked the National Chairman of the party, Alhaji Ali Modu Sheriff, and members of the National Working Committee (NWC) and appointed a former governor of Kaduna State, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, as the acting chairman of the party. Makarfi is to lead the newly appointed caretaker committee of the party for the next three months, after which another national convention will be conducted to elect a substantive leadership for the party.
The emergence of Ali Modu Sheriff as National Chairman of the PDP a few months ago, generated a lot of discontentment within the party, with some of the founding fathers threatening to leave the party unless he was dethroned.
This disagreement led to the emergence of a group known as the Concerned PDP, led by former Minister of Information, Prof. Jerry Gana, and supported by majority of the members of the Board of Trustees (BOT) of the party. Sunday Telegraph gathered that some former governors and other top party stalwarts deliberated on the removal of Modu-Sheriff throughout Friday night, where they resolved that the best way to re-unite the party was to sack him and his team. Apparently aware of the game plan, Sheriff chose to play a surprise card by postponing the national convention till all the legal matters restraining it were resolved.
The drama began when Sheriff addressed a press conference stating that the NWC was faced with court cases, and that the postponement of the convention would enable them sort the issues out as a law-abiding party.
Sheriff, who was flanked by a former governor of Imo State, Ikedi Ohakim, and Sen. Hope Uzodinma, said that the ÑWC of the party would inform party members and the public of the new date for the convention. “The members of my working committee and I have been meeting since morning concerning the issues of our convention. Our party is responsible and law-abiding. We are suspending the convention until all our cases are resolved. We don’t want to disregard the law,” he said.
However, a mild confusion arose as his directive was countered shortly after by a former Deputy National Chairman (South- South), Chief Uche Secondus, who announced that the convention would go on as scheduled.
This later development culminated in the appointment of the caretaker committee of the party. The new leader of the party, Senator Makarfi, was presented to the party delegates at the Sharks Stadium, Port Harcourt venue of the convention, by all the serving PDP governors. Makarfi promised to work towards uniting the party and wooing back aggrieved members into the fold. He disclosed that he never expected to be appointed the chairman, having come to Port Harcourt as a delegate from Kaduna State. “I just arrived Port Harcourt… and people started approaching me, asking if I was willing to serve. I said I would serve once it is a legitimate task. I humbly accept this challenge on behalf of other members of the committee.
I assure you that you will have no cause to worry. We are going to serve our party. I call on all aggrieved members to give our party a chance to do the country proud,” he said. However, the Concerned PDP Stakeholders’ Forum led by former Minister of Information, Prof. Jerry Gana held a parallel convention in Abuja but refrained from going into any election. The group insisted that the PDP remained one family, adding that it was discussing with the other PDP leaders who were in Port Harcourt, with a view to resolving the differences between them. Those at the Abuja convention were mainly former ministers, founding members and former governors.
The convention, which started by 10a.m, lasted for only two hours and ended abruptly without much ceremony. The group said it decided to hold non-elective convention in deference to a court order stopping the party from electing new National Working Committee (NWC) members. However, a 57- member steering committee cochaired by former Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ibrahim Mantu, and former Minister of Education, Prof. Tunde Adeniran, was set up to oversee the affairs of the forum until the court order is set aside and a proper convention held. Mantu, in a speech, said the stakeholders “resolved to rebuild, renew and rebrand” the party to anchor the dreams of the founding fathers.
“This becomes a non-elective convention in respect of court order, and also to enable us have a tete a tete with our brothers in Port Harcourt,” Mantu added. He reiterated that the decision to choose Senator Ali Modu Sheriff as chairman of the party was in gross violation of the established procedure for the selection.
Apparently giving reasons for the opposition to Sheriff, a member of the steering committee, Hajia Inna Ciroma, noted that PDP in Borno State suffered for 16 years under Ali Sheriff. “We won election and he scuttled it. Is it a way to pay us back by imposing him on us?” she asked. Former Special Adviser to former President Goodluck Jonathan on Public Communications, Dr. Doyin Okupe, in an interview added, “We are not ruling out reconciliation, we are open to setting up a caretaker committee.
Speakers from the six geopolitical zones who addressed the convention called for justice and level playing ground, and kicked against imposition of candidates. Among party leaders at the convention were Prof. Gana; former National Chairman, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo; former Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Senator Bala Mohammed; outgoing PDP National Vice Chairman (South-South), Dr. Cairo Ojougboh; former Chairman of Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), Mrs. Esther Audu; former governors of Imo, Adamawa and Taraba State, Achike Udenwa, Ahmadu Finitiri and Garba Umar.
Meanwhile, delegates at the Port Harcourt Convention were tear-gassed by security operatives, who struggled to maintain order at the gate set aside for delegates. Hundreds of delegates had massed at the rear end of the Sharks Stadium, waiting for their turn to enter the stadium and locate the stands for the various states, but found it extremely difficult to gain entry due to the delay in security checks. It was during one of the surges by the delegates who were on different queues that policemen fired tear gas repeatedly into the air and succeeded in dispersing the delegates, and others that wanted to enter the stadium.
Some of the fleeing delegates ran into a team of delegates from Osun State, who were on their way to the entry point of the stadium. Both teams joined others in making a U-turn from the convention ground. Two journalists sustained injuries during the convention.
While one of them, a male TV journalist, was beaten up by civilians working with an acting local government chairman, the other, a female journalist, fell and hit her head on a concrete while running from the tear gas. They were subsequently rushed to the hospital for treatment. Also, some hoodlums had a field day, snatching mobile phones from delegates milling around the entrance to the stadium.
Some of the miscreants moved in twos, targeting delegates with expensive phones, which they stole and passed around themselves to escape being caught. But one of them ran out of luck as he was caught and almost lynched.
