Elder statesmen form PDP Rescue Group to get Sheriff removed as party chairman

NEW Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chairman Alhaji Modu Sherrif has come under fresh attacks from senior party members including former ministers calling on him to stand down as he lacks the credibility to provide the transparent leadership required.

 

Last week, Alhaji Sheriff, the former Borno Sate governor was named as the PDP's new chairman by its federal executive council but his appointment has sparked a wave of protests from party members. Apart from the fact that he is under investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), he has been accused of being one of Boko Haram's sponsors.

 

Highly controversial, Alhaji Sheriff is one of Nigeria's wealthiest men who owns a fleet of private aircraft, which critics say he bought with state money. They claim that had he spent the money he used in enriching himself on Borno State, Boko Haram would not have found a fertile breeding ground for its propaganda.

 

Over the weekend, several leading PDP members including Ambassador Wilberforce Juta, Alhaji Mukhtari Shagari and Senator Adolphus Wabara, called on Alhaji Sheriff to resign. Calling themselves the PDP Rescue Group, the party leaders said they were upset and disappointed with the appointment of Alhaji Sheriff.

 

Ambassador Juta, the group's chairman, added that a majority of members of the PDP had no faith in Alhaji Sheriff. He said the person who should lead the party now, should be someone he described as a person of impeccable integrity.

 

“The current leadership crisis is a challenge to every Nigerian in the sense that having the PDP destroyed by acts of error of judgment, as being witnessed now, is denying Nigeria of a strong opposition party that is badly needed if Nigeria’s democracy is to be strengthened and all tendencies towards civilian dictatorship checked. The crisis must challenge all party members to action to halt the party from further drift.

 

"Given that the PDP is now a major opposition party, it is the duty of every member to ensure that party leaders possess high integrity and leadership skills. To raise a leader, who is lacking in integrity and skills, is to throw the party and the nation into inefficiency, indiscipline, disorderliness and even chaos, Ambassador Juta added.

 

He described the way Alhaji Sheriff was appointed as a crude imposition, calling on the party stakeholders to search for a credible person to replace the former Borno State governor immediately. According to Ambassador Juta, the plan of the PDP Rescue Group is to mobilise party members and leaders to help attain this noble goal.

 

Ambassador Juta added: “Sadly, the overwhelming reaction of Nigerians to Sheriff’s emergence, especially PDP members and leaders, is that of disappointment. It is therefore critical, if the PDP must come back to national reckoning, that we remodel its leadership on the platform of honesty as required by the party’s manifesto.

 

Former senate president Senator Adolphus Wabara, who is also the deputy chairman of the group, described Alhaji Sheriff’s appointment as an imposition. Also, a former Sokoto State deputy governor, Alhaji Shagari, called on Alhaji Sheriff to resign, adding that leaders of the party would not sit down and allow the party to die.

 

Some of the members of the group, who were at the weekend meeting included John Odey, Kabiru Mohammed, Dr Akilu Indabawa, Dr  Umar Ardo,  Bashir Maidugu, Mohammed Kabir, Dr Pogu Bitrus, Lancelot Anyanya and Muyiwa Oladimeji. Meanwhile, the Forum of PDP ministers, who served from 1999 till 2015, are meeting in Abuja tomorrow, where a decision would be taken on Alhaji Sheriff.