Chairman of the national caretaker committee, Sen Ahmed Makarfi, yesterday threw more light into how national chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Sen Ali Modu Sheriff, backtracked on the peace proposal by former President Goodluck Jonatnan over the crisis rocking the party.
Makarfi who stated this at a meeting of PDP Northern leaders and elders which held in Abuja, said Sheriff refused to abide by an arrangement where both of them would resign and forge a settlement at the Supreme Court.
This comes as Makarfi’s PDP, disclosed that they are in alliance with 15 other political parties ahead 2019.
Meanwhile, women leaders of the party have called on Sheriff and Makarfi to cease the verbal war and abide by the peace process initiated by former President Goodluck Jonathan.
Makarfi while throwing light on the recent spate of crisis rocking the party, said “When Dickson came to meet me on his committee’s report, I told him, you are one of the governors that met with former president Goodluck Jonathan and he spelt out the proposal of peace plan which he communicated to the NASS, communicated to us (caretaker committee) and other organs of the party.
“And I asked him, are you now removing yourself from that? Why didn’t you table what you have before your colleagues? I also asked him whether he has taken pains to read the Port Harcourt Appeal court judgement and he said no. That judgement is based on two premises which we did not accept. The first premise, which we did not accept in our appeal to the supreme Court, is that the tenure of three members of NWC will expire in august this year and 18 will expire in July 2018.
“If you now propose to hold convention in June, what are you going to achieve? How will the June convention be different from last year’s in Port Harcourt and he said he didn’t think about that.
“And if he didn’t think about it, he shouldn’t do anything that will go against court of appeal judgment. What that judgement stipulates is a return to a status quo ante. What the court means is that all the national officers before May 21 must return to office. What Sheriff is doing is against the judgement, all his actions run foul of the judgement.
“The proposal on the way forward is to revert to the status quo as pronounced by the court of appeal. This is what I told Dickson, that he should go back to his colleagues governors and other organs of the party to clear the issue. As far as we are concerned, the caretaker committee has no position other than the organs of the party.”