PDP national secretariat to be reopened before Friday – Sheriff

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The national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Ali Modu Sheriff, on Wednesday, said the party’s national secretariat at Wadata Plaza would re-open before Friday. Mr. Sheriff said this when he received some PDP leaders from South-West geopolitical zone who paid him a visit in his office in Abuja. The party’s national secretariat has been under lock since its national convention on May 20, 2016.

The police said the action was to avoid breakdown of law and order as a result of the leadership tussle between Sheriff-led and Ahmed Makarfi-led National Caretaker Committee. Mr. Sheriff said he had commenced legal process that would allow the party leaders and workers to access the secretariat, currently under lock.

He added that “between now and Friday, we will move into our national secretariat. “We have transmitted the necessary document to the security agencies; including the Nigerian Police and the Department of State Security Services (DSS) to reopen it.” Mr. Sheriff, who was confirmed as authentic national chairman of PDP by Court of Appeal, Port Harcourt on Feb. 17, said he was not in PDP to remain its national chairman.

He said “my mission is to rebuild the party and bring it back to its 1999 position. “I am not here to remain as chairman forever. I will leave after the convention. “We will conduct a credible convention and whoever wants to be PDP leader can contest in the convention,” he said. He urged PDP leaders to go back to their respective wards and work for the party. He also pleaded with governors to join him in rebuilding the party, saying they were leaders in their own right.

The PDP South West Zonal Chairman, Makanjuola Ogundipe, who led the team on the visit, said they were at Mr. Sheriff’s office to express the zone’s support for him. Mr. Ogundipe said the visit was also to advise Mr. Sheriff to use his victory at the court to reunite everybody in the party, irrespective of what happened earlier. He added that “you must see yourself as father to all. “Now that you have been saddled with the leadership responsibility, we want to urge you to make sure that the party is revived within 40 days.”