Planning for Its Future, PDP Governors to Respect Supreme Court Verdict

•  Resolve to convince Wike, Fayose to remain with party

Tobi Soniyi and Segun James

Ahead of the Supreme Court judgment on the leadership dispute between the Ali Modu Sheriff-led Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Ahmed Makarfi-side of the party, state governors elected on the platform of the party have resolved to respect the outcome of the verdict and remain in the party.

One of the South-south governors, who spoke to THISDAY in confidence, said that they had no plans to leave the party for a new party.

He also said that they would not defect to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

His reaction followed speculation that members of the party planned to join the newly registered Advanced Peoples Democratic Alliance (APDA). PDP has denied any link with APDA and vice versa.

“Even if the judgment favours Sheriff, we have resolved to go with him. We have also resolved to persuade others not to leave the party. It is in everybody’s interest to remain within the PDP,” he said.

The governor, however, said that only one of their colleagues from one of the states in the South-south was yet to make up his mind.

“PDP will remain, whichever way the judgment goes. We are not ready to leave the party, whether to the APC or any other party,” he added.

According to him, the governors had resolved to persuade the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, and his counterpart in Ekiti State, Ayo Fayose, to accept Sheriff in the event the judgment goes in his favour.
“After all they were the ones who brought Sheriff,” he added.

He explained that the APC was even more fractured than the PDP, hence the resolve to get PDP back on track.
Meanwhile, the decision of the Supreme Court not to give any specific date for the delivery of judgment in the PDP leadership dispute was taken to ensure that the court was not put under unnecessary pressure by desperate politicians.

A competent source said that despite the measures taken by the court’s leadership to ensure that its judges are insulated from pressure, the court has been inundated with enquiries from politicians who want to know which direction the judgment will go.

PDP has been enmeshed in a crisis that is threatening to tear the party apart.

Before reserving judgment to a date to be communicated to the parties, the Supreme Court had dismissed an application filed by Sheriff, asking the court not to hear an application by Makarfi.

Sheriff had asked the court to reject the application filed by Makarfi, challenging the February 17 judgment of the Appeal Court in Port Harcourt, which in a spilt judgment had declared Sheriff the national chairman of the party.