Finally PDP Has Consensus Candidate For National Chairman

The embattled national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ali Modu Sheriff will be contesting as the sole chairmanship candidate at the party’s May 21 national convention billed to hold in Port Harcourt, Rivers state.

The Nation reports that the stakeholders, including the Board of Trustees (BoT) and others who were calling for his ouster unanimously endorsed him for the job, with the various dissenting groups in agreement at the meeting held at the party’s secretariat in Abuja on Monday, May 16.

Speaking with newsmen, Sheriff said: “Yes, I am contesting for the position of chairman at the convention. I have been unanimously endorsed by the Northeast zone and Borno State as sole candidate.

“The Taraba State Governor, Darius Ishaku, moved the motion for my adoption and his Gombe State counterpart, (Ibrahim Dankwabo) seconded the motion.”

With the endorsement, Sheriff will be presented as the zone’s only candidate at the party’s upcoming national convention.

According to him, the plan to amend the party’s constitution has been dropped. This has been one of the sources of disagreement among party stakeholders.

He had been accused of making plans towards changing the party’s constitution to favour his ambition to contest the chairmanship of the party, whereby he added a clause that he would need to be consulted before any organ of the party could call for any meeting.

The chairman noted that it was not his idea to amend the party’s constitution, saying he only inherited the recommendation as contained in a report by the Ike Ekweremadu committee.

He also confirmed the party’s decision to zone the PDP’s presidential ticket to the North for the 2019 general election.

Sheriff added that they would resolve disagreements arising from the conduct of ward and zonal congresses across the states.

The emergence of Sheriff as PDP chairman was greeted with harsh criticisms. Many asked him to resign but he declined.

Recall that some PDP chieftains had threatened to dump party should Sheriff be allowed to continue as chairman to the detriment of the south west, which should ordinarily produce a candidate for the position.