Mr Abdullahi Jalo, former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), said the dissolution of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) at the Port Harcourt national convention was constitutional.
Jalo, who was a member of the dissolved NWC, stated this in an interview with newsmen on Monday in Abuja.
He also said that the caretaker committee for the party headed by former governor of Kaduna state, Sen. Ahmed Makarfi, which was constituted at the convention, was legitimate and backed by the law.
Jalo alleged that the major cause of recent crisis in PDP was the plot by its former National Chairman, Sen. Ali Modu Sheriff, to hold on to power and contest the 2019 presidential election on the party’s platform.
He said that if Sheriff continued to lead PDP, the crisis in the party would continue.
He said that the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) during its 71st meeting had agreed that Sheriff’s tenure had expired because he was completing the tenure of Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu, which ended in March.
“The convention in Port Harcourt had, seeing the danger ahead, unanimously resolved that we should give way for peace to reign, and the party is more supreme than any individual in the NWC.
“So in order to bring peace, Jerry Gana, Mantu, Turaki, Zainab Maina and many others are insisting that Ali Modu Sheriff should go.
“His tenure had expired long ago, but he was only given the favour by the governors at the detriment of long serving members who laboured for the party.
“If the convention had ratified him, he would have been given till that period of 2018, but since he has been sacked, he should thank God that in spite of the protest of so many people, he was able to manage it,” Jalo said.
He added that the Gana-led Concerned PDP Stakeholders was out to rescue the party from “imminent collapse” and should not be seen as a tool for the division of the party.
Meanwhile, former National Vice Chairman of the party in South-South, Dr Cairo Ojougboh, has said that efforts had begun for the reconciliation of members of the party.
He told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja that both conventions of the party held on Saturday and their outcomes did not any way violate any court order.
“The caretaker committees that emerged from the two conventions were non-elective as there was no election.
“It is not even the matter of legitimacy that is important, we are appealing to everybody, those aggrieved and those that were not, that everybody should forfeit his rights.
“This is important so that we can forge ahead and move the party forward,” Ojougboh said.
He said that PDP was a strong party that had its method of resolving internal crisis, and that efforts were ongoing to rebuild the party.
“After Saturday conventions, the party members are coming together to reconcile and rebuild the party. You will see that the party will come out well and stronger.
“We members of the party are determined to rebuild the party. We are working day and night to see that political solution is achieved and that is what PDP is known PDP for,’’ he said.
Ojougboh added that PDP leaders welcomed the closure of the party’s National Secretariat by the police, saying “let it remain locked until we resolve issues and then go to the police and say give us our key”. (NAN)