The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Working Committee, on Tuesday, accused the All Progressives Congress of sending the former national chairman of the party, Ali Modu-Sheriff, to destroy the party.
This was made known by the Publicity Secretary of the committee, Dayo Adeyeye, at press conference in Abuja.
Adeyeye said Sheriff’s action since he was ousted from office was an attempt to destroy the party.
He further alleged that Sheriff alongside the former National Secretary, Prof. Olawale Oladipo, and former National Auditor, Fatai Adeyanju, had invaded the national secretariat of the PDP with thugs on Monday morning.
Adeyeye noted that the committee had alerted the police to secure the lives and properties within the party.
“Up to a point, the police discharged their responsibilities satisfactorily. However, later on, without any justification whatsoever, Ali Modu Sheriff and the other renegades were allowed to gain entry into the secretariat, where they later proceeded to address a press conference.”
“The All Progressives Congress has contracted Sheriff and his cohorts to scuttle the chances of the PDP in the Edo governorship election.”
“We have credible intelligence that Sheriff had a meeting on Sunday night with an (unnamed) APC governor from the North-West, where it was organised that he would be given full security and financial support to exacerbate the crisis in the PDP with the objective of preventing the PDP from presenting a candidate for the Edo governorship election, or in the very least, to prevent the PDP from offering a serious challenge to the APC, whose electoral fortunes have continued to nosedive.”
However, Sheriff, through his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Inuwa Bwala, has reacted to the accusation that he is an agent of the opposition.
“Senator Ali Sheriff is too big to be used by anybody, least of all the APC, to destroy a party he is trying to and weaning from the milk of impunity and rebuilding to give Nigerians a credible alternative.”
“He left the APC based on principle and has not had contact with the party ever since. The so-called caretaker committee knows that INEC will not accept any list from it; so, it is desperate to get recognition.”
“We know for certain that the leader of that group has a presidential ambition and he appears to have recruited some governors, who are now backing him to use the PDP platform, knowing that Ali Sheriff is a stickler for the right things being done; he sees him as an obstacle that must be removed.”
