PDP Northern Elders Ask Sheriff to Hand Over to BoT

• Congress, constitutional amendments flawed

Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Northern Elders Forum has said for peace to reign in the party, the present leadership of the party led by Senator Ali Modu Sheriff should postpone the May 21 national convention and hand over the administration of the party to the Board of Trustees so that appropriate arrangements could be made for transition of power to a new leadership.

The group’s spokesman and former Minister of Information, Prof. Jerry Gana, who addressed journalists in Abuja after their meeting, said the recent congresses and the process being adopted for the amendment of the constitution are both flawed and should be jettisoned.

Gana, who read out the communique of the meeting, said that in order to avoid a vacuum after the Sheriff-led leadership must have stepped down, the BoT should be vested with the interim powers to administer the affairs of the party as provided by the constitution.

” We propose that the BoT be repositioned to effectively perform its constitutional role and to provide trustworthy leadership during the transition to the next national convention of the party on a suitable date to be agreed,” he said.

On the issue of demand for the postponement of the convention and if the party ignores the call, Jerry Gana said: we are generals in this political terrain and as such we do not advertise our strategies, we have very clear strategies on what we will have to do if our demands were not met. It is well laid out but I am only permitted say the aspect I have just stated. Our response will be seen through our actions henceforth.

While providing reasons for the group’s conclusions, Gana said a lot of things have gone wrong starting from arrangements being put together for the convention as well as the, zoning, congresses and constitutional amendment procedure.

“It is very that in a number of states, congresses were badly conducted, totally unacceptable to the people and we believed that it will fair that in such cases, they have to be re-done so that there will be credibility. In some areas, it should be s matter of reconciliation which we shall do.

“We reaffirm our position that the party should suspend the proposed amendment to the party’s constitution because the procedures being followed are unconstitutional and illegal.

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