PDP: Sheriff pulls out of Jonathan’s reunion moves, says ex-president worsened crisis

The national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ali Modu Sheriff, has officially announced that he was pulling out of the reconciliation move by former President Goodluck Jonathan to restore unity to the troubled party.

PDP has remained a shadow of its old self following a leadership tussle between factions loyal to Sheriff and Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led National Working Committee. This division in PDP led the former President to initiate moves for a possible political solution to the protracted crisis.

However, Sheriff in a statement signed and issued by his deputy national chairman, Cairo Ojougboh, on Thursday in Abuja announced he was pulling out to allow his National Working Committee (NWC) concentrate on repositioning the party.

Claiming that the peace move initiated by Jonathan has been hijacked by Makarfi and his faction, Sheriff said the initiative had finally collapsed.

He said, “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. 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.”

The group further announced an indefinite postponement of the party’s National Executive Council (NEC) meeting earlier scheduled to hold on May 4.

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