The leadership crisis of the People’s Democratic Party looks far from being settled as the newly installed National Chairman, Ali Modu Sheriff has urged the court of Appeal in Rivers to jail factional chairman, Ahmed Makarfi and his loyalists for contempt.
Sheriff accused Makarfi of flouting the order of the court, which was delivered on February 17, 2017.
The court in its judgment had named Sheriff the national chairman of the party while it also upheld that Wale Oladipo remained its national secretary.
Sheriff also named members of the sacked National Caretaker Committees, Senator Ben Obi (secretary) and Mr. Dayo Adeyeye(publicity secretary) as well as former Minister of Aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode.
The former Borno governor in his suit urged the court to sentence the alleged contemnors to a year in prison.
He also sought a restraining order against former Deputy Speaker of House of Representatives, Emeka Ihedioha; a former Minister of Information, Prof. Jerry Gana; Chairman, Board of Trustees of the party, Senator Walid Jibrin; and Chief Bode George.
He asked the court to restrain them from “proclaiming or otherwise holding out to the public that the 1st to 3rd alleged contemnors are national officers of the PDP for any purpose whatsoever.”
Sheriff and Oladipo also asked the court to order the DSS and the Inspector General of Police to close down the factional secretariat being operated by the Makarfi group.
In the case filed on February 24, Oladipo said “soon after the judgment was delivered, the alleged contemnors proceeded to address the media and to comment negatively, contemptuously, disparagingly and contumeliously on the findings and order of the court set out above.”
He added, “Rather than accept that the justice of the matter as determined by this honourable court was as expressed in the findings, holdings and order set out above, the 4th to 8th Alleged Contemnors made statements encouraging the 1st to 3rd respondents to defy the order of the court and flout the purpose of the court’s judgment delivered on the 17th of February 2017.”
He said the alleged contemnors also placed notices on newspapers calling for a meeting of ‘PDP stakeholders’.
He stated, “The said meeting was held on Monday, February 20, and was attended by the 4th to 8th alleged contemnors, who made further statements encouraging the 1st to 3rd alleged contemnors to defy the holdings and order of the court.”
Sheriff listed the PDP, the Independent National Electoral Commission, the Inspector-General of Police and the Department of State Services as defendants in the suit.