PDP National Chairman, Ali Modu Sheriff n 12 Others Sacked

The decision to sack Sheriff and other members of the NWC was taken at a meeting held by the founding fathers under the aegis of the Concerned Stakeholders of the PDP in Abuja.

Those at the meeting were a former Minister of Information, Prof Jerry Gana; a former National Chairman of the party, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo; a former Minister of Education, Prof. Tunde Adeniran and a former Deputy President of the Senate, Ibrahim Mantu.

The crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party took a new dimension on Thursday when the founding fathers of the party announced the sacking of its members of the National Working Committee.

The NWC, which is led by the party’s National Chairman, Ali Modu Sheriff, has 12 other members.

Others at the meeting included a former Minister of Women Affairs, who was also a former National Woman Leader, Haji Ina Ciroma; a former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Bala Mohammed; a former Minister of Transportation, Chief Ojo Maduekwe, a former Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Shetima Mustapha; a former Minister of Police Affairs, Alhaji Maina Waziri and a firmer Chairman of DAAR Communications, Dr. Raymond Dokpesi.

Though the members of this group said they were not going to leave the party, Sheriff said he would not lose sleep if the founding fathers decided to dump the PDP.

Sheriff noted that these elders had taken a decision to leave the party, adding that when they were around, they contributed to the problems bedevilling the PDP today.

But the founding fathers, in their communique which was read by a former presidential aide, Dr. Doyin Okupe, said that a 21-member steering committee that would manage the affairs of the party pending the time when election would be conducted for the vacant offices had been named.

But they did not release the names of the 21-member committee.

They said that the national convention of the party scheduled to hold on May 21 should be stopped because the meeting where the date was picked was illegal.

The communique was signed by Mantu, Adeniran and Dokpesi.

A copy of the communique, which was made available to our correspondent read in part,

“The steering committee will immediately put in place a National Reconciliation Committee to reconcile all previously aggrieved party members.

“We condemn the attempt by the illegal NWC of the party to amend the constitution of the party in order to muzzle and control the Board of Trustees and thereby subject the BoT to the villains and caprices of the NWC.”

The group recommended that the BoT be further strengthened and empowered to function effectively as the true conscience of the party.

They said that the tenure of the present members of the NWC had expired since March 24, adding that the extension granted the committee was illegal.

Speaking at the meeting, Adeniran said that the party had been hijacked by those he described as hoodlums, gangsters and monsters.

“Hoodlums, gangsters and monsters have hijacked the party we laboured to form. We are not joiners but founders of the party. We must rescue it from the hoodlums,” the former minister said.

Gana agreed with him, saying that before Adeniran could use those words, “it is clear that hoodlums have indeed hijacked the party.”