The crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP Tuesday took a turn for the worse on Tuesday as there was a sharp division among the organs of the party over the choice of former governor of Borno State, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff as the new national chairman of the Party.
But, after very exhaustive consultations, the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), appointed Senator Ali Modu-Sheriff from Borno state as the new National Chairman of the party to replace Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu.
The decision of the NEC followed the nomination of Senator Sheriff by the National Caucus, a body with membership drawn from the forum of PDP governors, members of the National Assembly, Board of Trustees and National Working Committee of the party.
Senator Modu Sheriff was picked by National Caucus of PDP comprising the governors, members of the National Working committee, NWC and the leadership of the National Assembly.
Sheriff who was the Chairman, Board of Trustees, BoT of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP, was picked by the caucus as the candidate from the pool of other aspirants that appeared for the interview and screening.
Twenty nine names were said to have indicated interest for the position, but later pruned down to seven, even as former Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu who indicated interest for the position, but did not show up for the screening.
This was after the spokesperson for PDP, Olisa Metuh, had addressed journalists at the Abuja’s Wadata plaza secretariat of the party that all organs of the party, including, the national caucus, PDP governors’ forum and the national assembly caucuses had agreed on the choice of Mr. Sheriff.
Mr. Metuh said the decision would be communicated to the Board of Trustees and subsequently, the National Executive Committee, NEC, for ratification before a formal announcement would be made.
This is even as a former Senator, Adeseye Ogunlewe openly endorsed the candidature of the former Gov. of Borno state.
Ogunlewe had said ‘It is a new day for the party, we are happy and grateful to God for giving us such a person, a seasoned administrator, a former governor and a former senator, he has all it takes to lead the party afresh, that is the kind of person we want, congratulations to him
There is no controversy at all; he is the best man for the party now, anybody that has a doubt in his mind that is his problem. That is our chairman that is the man we are all going to stand behind to move the party forward and we are even grateful that he accepted to be the chairman of the party.
He has all that he takes to succeed on the job. Who else do you want; he has the experience, the exposure and the wealth to move the party.
Before the announcement was made, a member of the People’s Democratic Party’s Board of Trustee, (BOT) Chief Ebenezer Babatope has revealed to The New Diplomat that Ex-Borno Gov. Ali Modu Sheriff is not the chairman of the Party.
According to the Former Minister of Transportation during an interview with The New Diplomat, he denounced the news that Ali Modu Sherriff has been accepted as the new Chairman of the party.
‘That is not correct, I have just left the Board of Trustee and there is nothing to that effect.
‘That cannot be true, the matter has been referred to the National Executive Committee (NEC) because the Board of Trustee did not agree that Modu Sheriff should be the chairman of the party’ he told The New Diplomat.
