SOME Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) elders, under the aegis of PDP Rescue Group,
led by former Gongola State governor, Ambassador Wilberforce Juta, has called on
the new national chairman of the party, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, to resign.
Addressing a news conference in Abuja, on Sunday, the group argued that his
resignation would spare the opposition party further embarrassment.
Reading from a prepared text, Juta, who spoke on behalf of other aggrieved
aspirants, said Sheriff was an imposition on the party and was never nominated from
his North-East zone.
Saying the his home state, Borno, had already rejected the former state governor, he
called on the party organs to commence the search for “persons with high, strategic
insight and fear of God almighty” to lead the party.
Juta said the group was not happy by the decision of National Executive Committee
(NEC) to appoint Sheriff, adding that they “are convinced that this decision by NEC
is against the will and wish of the generality of faithful members.
“We know that North-East zonal wing, having been directed by national caucus of
the party to forward nominees from the zone, did not nominate Senator Sheriff for
the position of national chairman.
“That it is in the interest of PDP and the country, Senator Sheriff should do the
needful by stepping down honourably as it is evident that party members nationwide
overwhelmingly reject his imposition.”
Juta said they have resolved for an early congress and national convention to be
called to elect new leaders, as “the term of the current leadership is due to end in
March 2016.”
He added that “under no guise should the tenure of current leadership of the party
be extended, if we must make the needed fresh beginning.”
Juta noted that that “most party faithful do not see in Senator Sheriff a model of
impeccable integrity that the PDP badly needs to lead it at this critical moment,”
stressing that to raise a leader lacking in integrity and skills is to throw the party
and nation into inefficiency, indiscipline, disorderliness and even chaos.
On the expectations that Sheriff would leave in March as he was meant to serve the
tenure of the North-East, Juta said “it is not the question of time but precedence. If
we allow it, we would have laid a bad precedence. What is wrong is wrong. It is
inappropriate.”
Former Senate President, Senator Adolphus Wabara, is the deputy deputy chairman
of the group, while former deputy governor of Sokoto State, Mukhtar Shagari, is the
secretary.
Former ministers, Mohammed Wakil, who along with Juta were national chairmanship
candidates and John Odeh are also members of the group.
Wabara, on his part, said “we are here to rescue the party from imposition and
impunity,” stressing that Sheriff’s emergence was “embarrassing,” as he was
smuggled into the contest.
He disagreed with Sheriff’s statement that PDP would return to power in 2019,
stressing that “we are not talking about 2019, we must impress Nigerians first."
The agenda is that the person who made that statement might be there to carry out
that mission.”
He recalled that the boast by some PDP members that the party would rule for 60
years never came to pass.
Also speaking, Shagari noted that the group is not out to “fight anybody, but put
things in perspective,” lamenting, however, that “key members have started leaving.
We can’t sit back and allow the party to die.”
He stressed that “no state from the North-East submitted his (Sheriff) name. We
don’t know how he came into the picture. It is not right for him to impose himself
the way he was imposed. It is honourable for him to step down.”
He noted that while he would not call Sheriff’s emergence illegal, since he was
approved by NEC, “what we all know is that it was not properly done. The entire PDP
family is not happy with what has happened. He has to resign.”
Nigerian Tribune
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