By Emeka Nze
Abuja
The Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led National leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has warned Senator Ali Modu Sheriff to desist from referring himself as the authentic national chairman of the party or risk going to jail.
In a statement yesterday by the PDP spokesman, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, the party described the latest press conference by the Sheriff faction “as another set of garbage and tissues of lies put together by the discredited loyalists of Senator Ali Modu-Sheriff.”
Adeyeye also said the group had tried in vain “to sustain its illegal claim to the leadership of our party, the Peoples Democratic Party.”
“The National Caretaker Committee has been confirmed severally by the court as the authentic body saddled with the task of providing leadership for the party pending the hosting of an elective convention.
Adeyeye said that allowing “these men of dishonour” (Sheriff’s camp), to continue deceiving Nigerian at this time would not be in the interest of democracy.
“First and foremost, we wish to state categorically that in consonance with Judgement of various Courts, which Ali Modu-Sheriff and his team of confused travellers have not bothered to appeal, the former Borno state governor is not the chairman of our party, the PDP.
“His consistent claim to the office is a continuation of their plans to sustain mayhem in our party, but nature and fair justice have taken care of his desperation.
“We wish to draw the attention of all Nigerians to the judgement delivered by Justice Valentine Ashi of the FCT High Court, which states clearly that Senator Ali Modu-Sheriff was never and is not the PDP National Chairman. It is instructive to note that Senator Modu-Sheriff and his team of circus performers have not deemed it fit to appeal the Court Judgements. It is tripartite in law that a judgement not appeal is binding on the defendant.
“The courts have spoken, and their pronouncements are binding. However, those who wish to spend the rest of their lives behind prison bars may continue to utter heresy against the Court. We hope their children would be proud to bear the family names of convicts.
‘It is also morally wrong to accuse the National Caretaker Committee of being the reason why the Party is facing challenges in terms of unfavourable election results, especially in Edo and Ondo states. Everyone knows who the real enemies of PDP are.
“We won’t also forget in a hurry the ignoble role Barrister Jimoh Ibrahim played in scuttling our campaign for the Ondo election. We also know those who pushed him forward for the hatchet job.
“We are amused that the agents of darkness, used by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to cause confusion and frustrate our campaign for the Ondo election, can accuse the National Caretaker Committee of impunity.
“However, we simply want them to define what impunity is, using their acts of betrayal as a case study. What they are doing is the worst form of impunity, lawlessness, greed and avarice.
“Their call on the National Caretaker Committee to self disband is uncharitable and unconstitutional. If they have any shame, they are the ones that should quietly disband. But honours can’t be expected from impostors.
“No matter what they say, we are determined as a political party to forge ahead and put our house in order even without their inputs.
“The National Caretaker Committee has not called for their expulsion against the claims they are making, the time for that has not come. But the rain of vengeance will not hang forever in the clouds.
“The National Caretaker Committee wish to appreciate all loyal party members, urging them to keep the faith as the Appellate Courts will do justice to the various appeals pending before it at the appropriate time; to put an end to the antics of these enemies of progress masquerading as members of our party.”
