Sheriff Pulls out of Peace Efforts Championed by Jonathan

The Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, has said he is pulling out the reconciliation move of the former President Goodluck Jonathan to resolve the party’s leadership crisis.

Sheriff in a statement signed by his Deputy National Chairman, Dr. Cairo Ojougboh, issued yesterday in Abuja, said this was to enable his National Working Committee (NWC) to focus on repositioning the PDP.

He said the reconciliation moves initiated by Jonathan had finally collapsed, alleging that the move had been hijacked by the Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led National Caretaker Committee.

“We are opting out and focusing our efforts at making the party the darling of Nigerians again.

“We had made tremendous progress before former President Jonathan was asked by party leaders to convene a meeting where stakeholders will adopt the Governor Seriake Dickson’s Committee report on reconciliation.

“Unfortunately, former president Jonathan lost control of the meeting he convened and allowed Makarfi group to continue with their anti-party posture,” he said.

“All the organs of the party were already queuing up behind us and Jonathan came to unbundle the progress we made by his inability to control the meeting.

“We will not continue again but rather concentrate on rebuilding our party,” he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that Sheriff also stated that his NWC had postponed the party’s National Executive Council (NEC) meeting scheduled for May 4 indefinitely, adding that a new date would be announced later.