Although the youth body of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) has said the take-over of the party’s national secretariat by Ali Modu Sheriff was legal, it has faulted the decision; describing the move as not being in the best interest of the party at the moment.
PDP youths made their position known through its spokesperson, Anthony Ehilebo, during a media chat in Abuja.
According to Ehilebo, Sheriff should have exercised restraint knowing that members of the Makarfi group applied for an injunction for the execution of the Appeal Court ruling that affirmed him as national chairman of the party.
He observed that if the Supreme Court grants the injunction, a fresh round of squabbles centred on getting Sheriff to vacate the national secretariat of the party would emanate to further deepen the crisis rocking the party.
Ehilebo said that Sheriff should have made good his promise of toeing the path-of-peace by waiting for all the consensus-building and the peace-making efforts that the party youths had insisted on were achieved before he took-over the Wadata Plaza office of the party, stressing that it would be in the best interest of all stakeholders including Sheriff himself.
He said the youths observed that the faces of the people who were with Sheriff during the take-over on Thursday were not the faces of people that should be ascribed to the PDP. It noted that Sheriff needed unity, more people, and more credible faces which the political party knows and recognizes to be able to steer the ship of affairs in the party properly, and to ensure that PDP becomes the credible opposition party Nigerians are yearning for.
Ehilebo lamented the frustration felt by the youths over the leadership tussle rocking the party and accused both factions of placing personal interests above common good.
He said: “Sheriff took over the party secretariat by a way of court injunction or judgement from the Appeal Court.
“Now, why go this extent when you know that someone is going to get a stay of execution, and when he gets a stay of execution, it is going to take a squabble again to get you out the secretariat?
“We would have advised, as the young people of the party and for the sake of the mandate we gave both factions; that we want a united PDP. We would have hoped that he held some restraint and waited for all the consensus-building and all the peace-making efforts that we are insisting to the party.
“At some point Makarfi had a judgement favouring him even at the last or so meeting that we had, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu raised the suggestion that Makarfi should go to the secretariat but Makarfi had restraint. He said he would rather wait until things are properly sorted out in the court of law.
“Sheriff and Makarfi were both two-time governors and senators. So they have fulfilled whatever political destiny God has ordained for them. We are really frustrated that because of some personal issues, there is disunity in the party when it is the time for other people to actually start to actualize their destiny, and more importantly; what is the plan for the Nigerian people?
“We observed the take-over of the PDP secretariat by Ali Modu Sheriff. The faces of the people we saw with him are not the faces of people that should be ascribed to the political party. He needs unity; he needs more people; he needs more credible faces which the PDP knows and recognizes.
“Why not even toe the path of peace? The path of peace would have been going into negotiation and coming to some consensus. If there are serious peace talks between the two factions of the PDP, we would know. Right now, we have a lot of grandstanding; we have a lot of people who are taking to their egos. What we want is for those egos to be subsumed into the necessity that Nigeria needs a virile opposition party.
“It is proper to see that real activities of party governance are going to take place. How can you have proper party governance without a properly constituted NWC?”
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