The drama of the absurd playing out at the Wadata Plaza headquarters of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), yesterday continued unabated, as rival groups loyal to the chairman of the party’s National Caretaker Committee, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, on the one hand, and the embattled ex-Chairman, Ali Modu Sheriff on the other, had a near violent clash.

The Makarfi group, however, had upper hand, chasing away the Sheriff boys with machetes.

The police, who were earlier being accused of bias by the Sheriff boys, retreated and allowed the boys to continue with their ‘madness’.

But the caretaker committee chairman is alleging that the import of thugs into Abuja, who forced themselves into the party secretariat, is akin to the beginning of the dreaded Boko Haram

sect in Nigeria

“Actually, those who remember how Boko Haram was born, that is how it started. How thugs were brought into Abuja and some people forced themselves into the secretariat, in the process, documents and some property, belonging to the party cannot be accounted for. This cannot bewithout some supports from some quarters, definitely not from PDP,” he alleged.

Makarfi, who addressed journalists on Thursday after the PDP stakeholders meeting which started on Wednesday and ended in the early hours of yesterday, alleged that Sheriff had some power-that-be behind him.

“We have had the former chairman recorded, saying that he was going to go beyond IG in order for him to gain access into the secretariat. We don’t know what he means by beyond the IG, but all of you are sensible enough to decide who his ‘beyond IG’ could actually mean.

“We are at a loss. Therefore, we deliberated on this and we have taken a position to stand by democracy, to stand by our right and to stand by our party”, he further explained.

Makarfi, who stated that the party is on course to find lasting solution to the challenges confronting it, promised that “PDP as an opposition will stand and defend an average Nigerian to get value for their votes.”

He called on security agencies to ensure peace reigns , especially at this difficult time in the nation’s history , saying any illegal action by any party, no matter how highly paced, must be checkmated.

“Those elements that may be interfering in our internal affairs, whether they belong to any particular party or they do not belong to any at all, they should allow us to be, as we are not

interfering in any other body’s affairs,” he said.

“We have it on record that the former Chairman, Sheriff, a day or two before he forced himself into the secretariat, had meeting with one of the governors with the party in power, and then the next day, this event took place.

“This, therefore, creates suspicion. If he claimed to be chairman of PDP, what meeting could he have had with the governor? Did he get any encouragement, facilitation, any guaranty for him to go ahead and do what it did?

“But again, we are confident that at the end of the day, justice will be done. We are confident that in all the issues before the judiciary, justice will be done. We are also confident, even if they are slips from the security agencies, they will see reasons and know that it is in the best interest of everybody that they stand on the side of what is right, what is just, and that is on the side of the legitimate leadership of the party so that peace can reign. ”

Also speaking with journalists in Abuja, Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, admitted supporting Sheriff to become the national chairman of the PDP, but stated that the decision was based on the information available to him at the time.

Fayose debunked the claim that he begged Sheriff to become the national chairman of the party.

He said: “Without doubt, I did not beg him, but I supported his coming. And when you act within ambits of time, the information you have at a given time, I am not someone that will say I did not support Sheriff. But when you want to marry a woman, on the wedding day, they tell you that the woman has HIV; will you still remain in the marriage? I am out of it.”

He disclosed that after making Sheriff the chairman, they were to help him to become the substantive chairman of the party only to learn that he was nursing a presidential ambition and making promises to make several people his vice presidential candidate

”Anything that wants to make Sheriff turn such an opportunity to telling us he wants to be president of Nigeria after caretaker, we intend to make sure we support him to be substantive chairman, and you are promising people everywhere that they should come and be your vice president, I can’t be part it, regrettably.”

•Sourced from Blueprint. Photo shows PDP caretaker Chairman, Senator Ahmed Makarfi.

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