Sheriff moves into PDP Hqts as Makarfi camp kicks

Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, whose chairmanship of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was recently endorsed by the Court of Appeal, has formally taken over the national secretariat of the party, in Abuja.

The national secretariat of the party, popularly known as Wadata Plaza, which had been under lock and key for eight months now following the leadership crisis rocking the party, was covered with dust and cobwebs.

‎Sheriff arrived the ‎premises of Wadata Plaza at exactly 6 p.m. and was led to his office on the second floor of the building.

He was accompanied by the acting Deputy National Chairman, Dr. Cairo Ojougboh; National Secretary, Professor Wale Oladipo; National Auditor, Alhaji Adeyanju; Senator Buruji Kashamu and Alhaji Ahmed Gulak and others.

However, the Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led National Convention Committee (NCC), has kicked against the action of Modu Sheriff, describing it as illegal and most unwelcome.

The national publicity secretary of the NCC, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, in a statement on Thursday in Abuja said: “As far as we are concerned, the forceful entry of Ali Modu-Sheriff and his team into the party secretariat is illegal and most unwelcomed.

“We say this because the keys to the secretariat is with the Board of Trustees (BoT) and we’ve checked with them, and can confirm that the keys were not handed over to Sheriff or any of his followers.

“The implication of this was that he broke into the secretariat, which is a criminal offence.

“We also expected that Modu-Sheriff should have waited for the conclusion of the appeal we filed at the Supreme Court before he forced himself in just like we held on when we got court judgement favouring us last year.

“We are condemning his action in totality and we view it as an affront on the rule of law.

“Given his act of illegality, we stated clearly that he should be held responsible for any loss of documents or damage to the property within the party secretariat.

“The administrative staff, as accounting officers, were not around to see the event happen, and as the custodians of the property of the party, they refused to participate in the illegal entry made by Ali Modu-Sheriff.”

The NCC also described his action as “provocative and capable of causing another round of crisis in the party.”

The Makarfi-led NCC therefore advised him to vacate the secretariat immediately while calling on authority of the Nigerian Police to prevent chaos by “flushing Ali Modu-Sheriff and his team out of the PDP secretariat and let all parties wait for the judgement of the Supreme Court, which is the highest court in the land,” the statement said.

Sheriff, while addressing the press in his office, said he came to inspect the secretariat to know the kind of repairs to be effected.

According to him, “we are here at the national secretariat this evening to access the place so that we can resume either (next) Monday or Tuesday. We will go round to access the kind of repair to be done.”

According to him, “we will get our painters and cleaners over the weekend to work on it, and while they are doing so we will continue with our consultations just like we will be doing since the judgement was delivered,” he stated.

The visit lasted for barely 15 minutes.
It will be recalled that Sheriff had told a delegation of PDP South West who visited him on Wednesday that he had transmitted all the necessary documents for the re-opening of the secretariat.