Fayose hits sheriff over national convention

The crisis rocking the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) deepened, yesterday, as Ekiti Governor, Mr. Ayo Fayose rejected the proposed National Convention and disowned Senator Ali-Modu Sheriff as national chairman. Sheriff who was affirmed chairman of the party by the Appeal Court had written Fayose who is the chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum, to nominate governors that would attend the party’s proposed national convention. The letter  dated March 29, 2017 was signed by factional National Secretary, Prof. Wole Oladipo. The PDP Reconciliation Committee headed by Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State had recommended that the party should hold a National Unity Convention not later than June 30, as part of efforts to end the protracted crisis. The committee also recommended that seven governors be nominated to join nominees from other organs of the party to form the PDP National Convention Committee. But Fayose, in a letter dated April 4, 2017 entitled: “Re-nomination of governors for the National Convention”, said he should be left out of the  “Kangaroo convention.” The letter read: “I received your letter dated March 29, 2017 and signed by one Prof. Wole Oladipo who claims to be the National Secretary of the Peoples’ Democratic Party requesting me as the chairman of the PDP Governors Forum to send list of governors for your proposed convention. “I wish to state that, I, Ayo Fayose do not recognise you as the party’s national chairman and will not have anything to do with you. I don’t have interest in a kangaroo convention being remote-controlled by the APC-led Federal Government. “You are, therefore, advised to leave me out of any arrangement in which you are being portrayed as the leader of the party. “I will not welcome any further correspondence from Ali-Modu Sheriff’s faction because I’m not interested in the so-called convention,” Fayose said. When contacted, acting National Publicity Secretary of the Sheriff faction, Mr. Bernard Mikko told Daily Sun in a telephone interview in Abuja,  that he would not respond to comments by Fayose. “I have no comment to that.  But all I will tell you is that the National Chairman is committed to building a strong PDP, which the founding fathers will be proud of, “ he said. He also declined to confirm if the Sheriff-led National Working Committee (NWC) had written formally to the PDP Governors Forum to submit names of its nominees for the convention committee. The PDP had been embroiled in crises with Sheriff and Senator Ahmed Makarfi leading a faction each and laying claim to the leadership of the opposition party.  The Makarfi faction has gone to the Supreme Court to challenge the Appeal Court judgment that affirmed Sheriff as the genuine leader of the PDP. Efforts to get the two factions to bury their differences which escalated following the botched convention in Port Harcourt, Rivers State that threw up Makarfi as interim chairman have met a brickwall. ***prbxselfnetwork***..