PDP Crisis: Sheriff Accuses Wike of Bankrolling S’Court Case with $6m

Ernest Chinwo in Port Harcourt, Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja and Bassey Inyang in Calabar

The Senator Ali Modu Sheriff-led faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, and his Ekiti State counterpart, Ayodele Fayose, of recruiting former President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, into a ‘fake” peace effort predetermined to scuttle Governor Seriake Dickson’s peace committee plan.

The faction also accused Wike of funding the botched peace meeting with N50 million while at the same time bankrolling the appeal being pursued by the National Caretaker Committee at the Supreme Court at the cost $6 million.

Addressing journalists on Thursday in Abuja on the latest position of the Sheriff-led National Working Committee (NWC) on the crisis, his deputy, Cairo Ojougboh, said they have decided to go ahead with the plans to hold a national convention notwithstanding the pending suit at the Supreme Court.

Against the background of the renewed face-off between the Sheriff leadership and the National Caretaker Committee headed by Senator Ahmed Makarfi, the former National Vice-Chairman said all the PDP governors with the exception of Wike and Fayose were behind Sheriff.

Ojougboh said having made extensive consultations with the party stakeholders, the Sheriff leadership was poised to hold the national convention beginning with the meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC) on May 3.

He said all the state chapters of the party had been instructed to send the list of delegates to the convention to the national headquarters of the party to facilitate the plans for the convention.

Regarding the failed effort by President Jonathan to reconcile the warring factions, Ojougboh said there was an allegation that Wike spent N50 million to host the meeting with President Jonathan which is neither palatable nor acceptable to the Sheriff-led party’s leadership.

Ojougboh said: “It is said that Wike paid $1 million for legal fees to Makarfi’s attorneys in the ongoing Supreme Court matter and has disbursed $5 million to unknown persons in relation to the Supreme Court (case).”

He said the party was embarrassed by the mass murder perpetrated under Wike’s watch as governor, as well as the issues of massive allegations of bribery levelled against him.

“It is also important to state that the unlawful actions of Wike are not a representation of what we stand for as a party in the PDP. The monies being frittered away on bribery belong to the people and are thus meant for the development of Rivers State.

“The party is reiterating its call on Nigerians and government officials to forthwith desist from accepting money belonging to the good people and government of Rivers State,” he said.

However, President Jonathan’s media aide, Ikechukwu Eze, has reacted to Ojougboh’s allegations, describing them as untrue.

In a statement issued on Thursday afternoon in Abuja, Eze said Jonathan never collected money from anybody to organise the stakeholders’ conference but that his intervention was borne out of genuine commitment to bring about peace in the party.

“It is not true. The former president intervened in the crisis because of his genuine commitment to bring about peace in the party that made him president. I don’t think anybody will believe that he collected money from anybody to organise the meeting.

“It is out of his genuine concern to bring peace in the party. He has been meeting with members of the party; he met with Sheriff severally, he also met with Makarfi severally. He met with the governors. I don’t see any reason for anybody to say that Jonathan collected money from anybody to organise the stakeholders’ conference,” Eze said.

However, Wike has accused the federal government of sponsoring Sheriff  to cause crisis in the PDP.

The governor described the PDP national chairman as a mole in the party.

He said it was because of the destructive crisis that has engulfed the APC at the national level that the federal government decided to sponsor Sheriff to destabilise the PDP.

The governor, who spoke at the Sharks Stadium in Port Harcourt on Thursday after receiving 7,800 APC defectors who joined the PDP, noted that the machinations of the federal government against the PDP would fail.

He said: “Sheriff is a mole of the APC who is being sponsored by the federal government.  They are sponsoring Sheriff because of the crisis in the APC.”

Meanwhile, Sheriff has singled out the Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, as the main cause of the crisis currently rocking the party.

Sheriff, who was on a working visit to the Cross River State chapter of the PDP, alleged that among the 12 PDP governors, Fayose was working seriously to ensure the party remained in fragments.

Sheriff told journalists in Calabar at the state secretariat of the PDP after meeting with the state party leaders, that he enjoyed the support of 29 state chapters of the party, including Ekiti State, out of the 36 state chapters in the country.

Commending the South-west party chairmen and their members for rallying behind his leadership, Sheriff declared that Fayose was free to leave the PDP.

He described the Ekiti State governor as a “loner” whom he accused of acting a script of his benefactor to wreck PDP.

Sheriff advised Fayose to quickly announce his exit from the PDP, and observe the peace the party will enjoy after his departure as they prepare for the 2019 general election.