indications emerged yesterday that the camp of the Chairman, National Caretaker Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party, Ahmed Makarfi, is angry with a faction of the party led by Senator Ali Modu Sheriff over the latter’s court victory on the authentic candidate of the party for the November 26 governorship election in Ondo State.
Sheriff’s camp, on Friday, secured a major victory over Makarfi’s faction when a Federal High Court declared Mr. Jimoh Ibrahim as the PDP candidate for the governorship election.
Makarfi’s camp had submitted the name of Mr. Eyitayo Jegede (SAN) to the Independent National Electoral Commission as the party’s candidate.
The commission accepted him as the party’s candidate.
However, when Friday’s judgement was delivered, a member of the Makarfi group said he wondered whether Sheriff was serious about the ongoing peace moves between the two camps.
The two factions will meet in Abuja on Tuesday, where they are expected to inaugurate a 28-man committee that will discuss and arrive at terms of agreement that will end the protracted crisis in the party.
Each camp is expected to nominate 14 persons to the committee.
A member of the Makarfi camp, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, “It is because of actions like this that made our party to be rigged out in the just concluded governorship election in Edo State. When we ought to speak with one voice in Ondo State, you can see the confusion this court pronouncement will cause in the party now.”
Speaking on the recent ruling, Makarfi insisted that Jegede remained the authentic candidate of the PDP.
Spokesperson for the Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led National Caretaker Committee of the party, Mr. Dayo Adeyeye, said the court ruling would not in any way affect the PDP candidate in the election.
A factional chairman of the PDP in Ondo State, Mr. Clement Fayode, who spoke with journalists on Saturday in Akure, the state capital, said the ruling of Justice Okon Abang was a mere distraction.
Fayode, who is loyal to the Makarfi faction of the party, said the ruling did not affect Jegede.
With or without the judgment, Makarfi said peace process would be judiciously followed to the end, adding that it would be wrong to assume that Friday’s judicial pronouncement was meant to scuttle it.
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