By Emeka Nze
Abuja
Barely few hours after the feuding parties in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) agreed to a ceasefire, the National Chairman, Sen. Ali Modu Sheriff, yesterday threatened legal action against those referring to the Ahmed Makarfi-led National Caretaker Committee, as a faction of the party.
Declaring the Makarfi group as illegal, Sheriff, in a statement by his deputy, Cairo Ojougboh, said by the pronouncement of the Court of Appeal in Port Harcourt, such a group was not supposed to be in existence.
Cautioning the media to take note and to desist from referring to the group as faction, Sheriff said “an appeal is not a stay of execution,” insisting that the group was illegal.
He warned Makarfi and his group to stop interfering in the affairs of the party, adding that the job vacancies he declared were to fill positions, as the old staff decided to abandon their work even when he appealed to them.
“Makarfi should behave himself, he should not interfere in our business, because we are not interested in his private business. Any further careless statement from him will force us to reconsider our earlier peace agreement.
“We have already employed staff who are running the bureaucracy efficiently. If Makarfi so desire, he should keep the old staff, just as he is doing now. We have had enough and enough is enough of this,” he said.
Makarfi had, last week, reacted to the job vacancies, when he said through a statement by Prince Dayo Adeyeye, that “we wish to state unequivocally that there are no vacancies for employment at the National Secretariat of our great Party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).”
“All the staffers of the Party in line with the Establishment Manual are intact and standing strong with all the organs of the PDP in its bid to salvage the Party from destroyers.
“It is sad to note that Professor Wale Oladipo is ignorant on the workings of the PDP, the Establishment Manual and the position of the recent Appeal Court Judgment of February 17, 2017 which ordered the Party to revert to the Status of the Party before May 21, 2016. The Publication is therefore a ploy by Senator Sheriff and his cohorts to disengage the Establishment Staff of the PDP for acting in line with their constitutional mandate and convictions.
“The vexatious publication is a cheap blackmail designed to intimidate our hardworking and highly principled staff. It belongs to the trash bin and should be ignored.”
Sheriff, has, however, said as the chairman of the party, he had the right to employ staff, adding: “We are preparing to complete state congresses where necessary and working hard planning our national convention. We will not be distracted from our set objective to return the Party to the grassroots by inconsequential issues.
“We must prevent anybody with the agenda of killing the party, especially those, who were brought to the party by those, who have already decamped to other parties.
“We are giving seven days to these old staff, who still have the property of our party in their possession to return them immediately, or we will be left with no other option than to hand them over to the police.”
