Politics

PDP already fragmenting before Dec. 9 convention

Published

9 years ago

November 22, 2017

The PDP National Caretaker Committee had an emergency meeting yesterday following calls by causes in the party urging the party’s care-taker committee chairman, Ahmed Makarfi, to resign before the December 9 convention in Abuja.

There are fears the convention will further damage the unity of the party if the current situation persists.

Olabode George and Prof. Tunde Adeniran, two chaiemanship contestants from the south, have their worries about Makarfi’s impartiality in the lead-up to the convention.

On Tuesday, the Bode George for PDP National Chairman Campaign Organisation called on Makarfi to resign his position with immediate effect. According to the group, the role Makarfi is playing in the process towards the party national convention is ‘disturbing and rather untidy;.

“Apparently spurred by personal ambition of contesting the presidential office in 2019, Makarfi is brazenly allying with a particular aspirant in the South-South to deliberately distort the process, muddle equity and invariably destroy the democratic process for transient personal gains,” Ibrahim Aliu, the director-general of the campaign organisation said in a press statement on Tuesday.

Adeniran had on Monday sent his petition to the caretaker committee members, questioning the inclusion of some people he claimed are loyal to another aspirant Uche Secondus in the composition of the ad hoc committee set up for the election of delegates to the convention.

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He also expressed his worries over call by Ekiti Gov. Ayo Fayose for a shadow election.

But the Tuesday meeting provided an avenue for the caretaker committee to iron out the issues raised by both George and Adeniran, rebuild the party’s confidence in them.

Makarfi will speak at a press briefing in Abuja on Wednesday when he will assure members of the party about his neutrality.

The PDP chairman, however, described the call as politics.

He advised George to concentrate on his campaign rather than raising what he described as baseless allegations.

He said George was basing his claim on a letter previously written by another aspirant, where he listed five people in the convention committee alleged to be supporters of a South-South aspirant.

And five, to Makarfi, is hopeless in a committee of about 160 persons who he said had the right to align with any candidate of their choice.