The fresh outbreak of hostilities is a big setback to the reconciliatory moves of the once ruling party, whose fortunes had plummeted after the general election loss of 2015.
The two claimants to the office of national chairman of the embattled party, Senator Ahmed Makarfi and Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, accused each other of planning to subvert the party.
The renewed battle for the control of the leadership of the party is coming barely 10 days to the Ondo State governorship election even as the party at the state level has been embroiled in a tussle for the governorship ticket.
Makarfi, who is the chairman of the national caretaker committee of the party, described Sheriff as an agent of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
In a swift reaction, however, Sheriff said Makarfi’s caretaker committee had been disbanded.
He said the members of the committee could be disciplined if they refused to act in accordance with the party’s rules and regulations.
Spokesperson for the Makarfi-led caretaker committee, Dayo Adeyeye, queried the rationale behind a statement issued by the National Deputy Chairman of the Sheriff faction, Dr. Cairo Ojougboh.
Adeyeye, a former minister of state for works, said Sheriff faction was working for the APC.
He said the faction was sending statements which he alleged were always full of lies to the members of the party nationwide.
REACTION
Sheriff, however, described Adeyeye as “a self-aggrandised spokesman”. He said, “All members of the outlawed Makarfi-led National Caretaker Committee are, hereby, stopped from further parading themselves as individuals or group acting as national officers of the Peoples Democratic Party.”
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