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Former senior Special assistant to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan (Public affairs), Chief Doyin Okupe has said disagreed with members and supporters of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who accuse the All Progressives Congress (APC) and President Muhammadu Buhari of using Ali Modu Sheriff, estranged PDP National Chairman, to cause crisis in the opposition party.
Wednesday’s failure of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to hold its National Convention and elect new national executives followed two conflicting court orders from the Federal High Court, the Abuja based court stopping the convention and the Port Harcourt based court giving the convention a go-ahead amid the legal battle between the Sheriff-led faction and the Ahmed Markafi-led faction.
This morning when the convention was supposed to kick off, the police moved in to enforce the Abuja court order by sealing off the Sharks Stadium, venue for the convention. the party members however met at the party’s state secretariat and agreed to extend the tenure of the Markafi caretaker Committee by one year to allow for the resolution of the court cases.
Doyin Okupe, commenting on the new decision, wrote on his Facebook page:
The failed Pdp convention cannot and should not be blamed on our political adversaries. Rather the blame should rest squarely on the failure of internal conflict resolution machinery of the Pdp, the surprising naivety and desperation of many to seize power and control the party,and the gullibility of majority of the followership, who have become entrenched in the cesspool of pervasive impunity of our leadership over the years.
However it is commendable that the NEC threw sentiments aside and extended the tenure of the controversial caretaker commuter by one year and allowed for future expansion of the membership of the committee.
The import of this is that the party has now officially jetissoned the “Microwave”strategy, hitherto, employed by the leadership, and allowed for ample time to address all issues. By allowing for new inclusions into the members of the caretaker committee, the leadership obviously has made room for possible reasonable negotiation with the Senator Amodu Sheriff ‘s group, which is inevitable and a political imperative, if the party must remain United.
Again, this is neither the time for victory songs nor a season for political vendetta. This is time for seeking lasting and honest peace, time to rebuild from current ashes of flames of the inferno, of political opportunism, greed, selfishness and blatant brigandry and impunity.
There may just be another chance to do it again especially now that our adversaries are burning their political access card.
Long live the PDP.
Long live the Federal republic of Nigeria.
Okupe’s words however met a strong disagreement from another chieftain of the party, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode who commented on Okupe’s post:
Egbon mi, I beg to differ. If you remember I warned the governors about Shetiff when they imposed him on us. The PDP Ministers Forum rejected him as did the PDP Board of Trustees but the governors would not listen. Now we have been vindicated because everything that we said would happen has come to pass. The imposition of Sheriff by the Governors Forum was the biggest mistake that we have made since conceeding the election to Buhari and frankly, as I wrote at the time, I believe that he bewitched the governors that brought him and indeed those in the party that accepted him and agreed to work wuth him. Truth is that there can never be any compromise with Sheriff. You cannot compromise and negotiate with the devil or a man that wants your head on a silver platter. Sheriff is working for Buhari to destroy the PDP and he has almost succeeded. The only answer is to continue to fight him in the courts and elsewhere and, if push comes to shove, form another party, get our members and supporters to join that party and leave the bastard with the carcass of the old PDP. Very few people will stay with him because carcasses tend to stink and because he is a plague.