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| Former military President Ibrahim Babangida |
People’s Democratic Party (PDP) leaders continued yesterday with their brickbats over leadership, Senator Buruji Kashamu urged the Ahmed Makarfi faction to forget appealing weekend’s Court of Appeal judgment which validated the leadership of Ali Modu Sheriff but to cooperate with him.
The same position is shared by former Niger State Governor Babangida Aliyu, who yesterday in Minna called for a political solution to the crisis, adding that “for now Sheriff is the National Chairman”.
But Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose said: “Sheriff and his gang are day-dreaming… If they think they can inherit the party illegally, that is a pipe dream.”
Former Minister of Aviation Chief Femi Fani-Kayode described Sheriff as “the angel of death to the PDP, who is worse than the bubonic plague”.
He said Sheriff “is not only a curse to our party but he is also an affliction to our nation”.
Former military President Ibrahim Babangida urged the factional leaders to find an amicable solution to the crisis.
He spoke yesterday when Sheriff visited him in Minna, the Niger State capital.
Sheriff was accompanied to IBB’s Hilltop Mansion by Babangida Aliyu. He spent about two hours there.
Before the meeting Gen. Babangida urged Sheriff to seek peace by reconciling with the Makarfi group.
He praised Sheriff for his handling of his victory at the Appeal Court saying: “I am very happy with your statement after the court ruling. It shows that there is room for reconciliation and unity. There is the need to bring everybody back together to make the party a formidable opposition party.”
After the meeting, Sheriff told reporters that his meeting with the former military leader was fruitful.
“IBB is our father. During our meeting, he said he was happy with my statement after the court ruling. He told me to continue that way so that I can bring everybody back together to make the party a formidable opposition party. What we want to do now is how to use that judgment to put the party back to shape so that everyone that is aggrieved is brought back as one united family once again. Look, united we stand, divided we fall.”
When asked if he had spoken to Makarfi, he said: “I have even called Makarfi himself. And I have called on everybody to come back so that we can work together.”
Aliyu said it was better for the party to avoid further litigations
“Political issues are not supposed to be solved legally normally. We should have found a political solution to all the problems . There are many Nigerians who have been making efforts to have a political solution. I call on members to bury their personal ambitions to be able to reorganise the PDP into a formidable opposition.
“Until anybody is able to go higher and set aside the decision of the court,.for the moment, Ali Modu Sheriff is the Chairman of the party, and those of us who love to see solution to this party will continue to find ways of mending it.
“I think we should all bury our ambition. You can’t have an ambition without a platform. We need to have a platform first of all and we are in the opposition, and we need time to organise and reorganise and go back to the people with plausible real solution to their problems. If we don’t get these solutions, then what do we have?
“We need to all come together and appeal to all of us, all PDP lovers and members, to really look at the issues objectively so that we have a platform that we can call a Party which can win elections. Not a fragmented party.”
