PDP Chairman Sheriff Talks Tough... Rules Out Future Meeting With Jonathan

Things are falling apart in PDP. National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, has vowed not to attend any reconciliation meeting with former President Goodluck Jonathan, stating that reconciliation has died in the party.

The former Borno State governor staged a walked out at the botched reconciliatory meeting called by the former President in Abuja on Thursday.

He accused Jonathan of deviating from agreements he said he had with him before they agreed to be part of the meeting.

Sheriff, who walked out of the meeting when he was denied the opportunity to preside over it, said that there was no way the party would be meeting and he would sit as a mere spectator when he remains the only person recognised by law as authentic national chairman of PDP.

Speaking to Punch on phone through his Deputy National Chairman, Dr. Cairo Ojougboh in Abuja on Friday, Sheriff also said he would not appoint anyone to join the 40-member committee the former President promised to set up on the reconciliation.

Rather, he said he would stick to the recommendations made by the Peace and Reconciliation Committee headed by the Governor of Bayelsa State, Mr. Seriake Dickson.

He said, “We will never attend any peace meeting to be called by the former President on reconciliation anymore. No. Never! We won’t go there. We are no longer interested in such reconciliation.

“We will not attend any other meeting to be called by him. We would cut off every leprous hand in the party. The former President can only chair a committee on his private foundation, not that of the PDP when we have a national chairman.

“We are not happy with the way he handled the failed meeting on Thursday. He did not respect the Court of Appeal judgment which pronounced Sheriff as the national chairman of the party.

“He (Jonathan) has no legal backing to chair PDP Stakeholders’ meeting when we have a sitting chairman. The former President does not have such a right. The failed meeting had scattered all the good works achieved by the Dickson committee.

“We hail our governors, except the duo of Nyesom Wike and Ayodele Fayose of Rivers and Ekiti states respectively, who worked against the meeting.”