Alhaji Ali Modu Sheriff, the new National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), got further solidified in his position on Tuesday after the critical elders of the party in the Board of Trustees (BoT) recanted their opposition to his appointment.
It was, however, not total respite for Sheriff as some former PDP ministers at the end of a meeting in Abuja stuck to their guns to force him out.
The volte-face followed troubleshooting efforts by Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, who met with different organs of the party in his house between Monday night and Tuesday evening.
Ekweremadu also met the former ministers led by Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau in his Abuja residence, during which he won a concession for Sheriff not to stay more than three months in office during which he will lead the party to a National Convention where a new executive would be elected.
The same approach was adopted in winning peace with the BoT and the National Assembly caucuses.
Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, Chairman of the PDP Governors Forum, who addressed journalists at the end of the joint meeting of the party’s different organs, said it was agreed that Senator Sheriff and his National Working Committee (NWC) members should organize a national convention of the party within three months.
Mimiko said: “I am happy to let you know that all the major organs of the party – the Governors Forum, National Working Committee, National Assembly Caucus and the Board of Trustees have agreed to stand by our National Chairman to ensure that our party moves forward.
“We have put behind us all the controversies in the press in recent times. I want to assure you that we are together as a party.
“We have also mandated the National Chairman and the National Working Committee to put in motion immediately the processes of ensuring that within three months, a National Convention of our party is called, and we will brief all our members nationwide within the next two weeks of the timetable in that direction. ’In the next two weeks, the timetable will be out, all culminating in our National Convention within three months,” he said.
On the insistence of former PDP ministers that Senator Sheriff was not acceptable to them, Governor Mimiko said the position taken by the BOT, NASS Caucus and the NWC was in consonance with the position of members of the PDP Ministers Forum.
-Vanguard
