Sheriff Suspends Edo PDP Exco

The Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led Caretaker Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has discarded the suspension of the Edo State Executive Committee of the party by the Ali Modu Sheriff faction. It would be recalled that Sherrif had made an announcement on Saturday suspending the Edo PDP Exco, and replacing same with a Caretaker Committee. Sheriff’s decision was predicated on the PDP primary election organized by the Makarfi caretaker committee apparently in preparation for the Edo gubernatorial election last Monday, which saw Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu emerge as the candidate of the PDP. The Sheriff-led faction had equally fixed June 29 to pick the PDP candidate for the September 10 Edo gubernatorial election. In making public the termination of the Edo PDP Exco, Sheriff alongside a former national secretary of the party, Professor Wale Oladipo, explained that the decision was arrived at during the National Working Committee meeting of the party on June 21. However, in a separate statement, the Markafi committee and the Edo PDP Exco posited that Sheriff and members of his NWC had been removed from office and as such not in a position to suspend anybody. According to the statement signed by the Head of Publicity of the Caretaker Committee, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, “The attention of the Caretaker Committee of the Peoples’ Democratic Party has been drawn to a press statement issued by Senator Ali Modu Sheriff and professor Wale Oladipo purporting to suspend the Edo State Executive Committee of the Party. “The general public, in particular leadership and members of the PDP in Edo State are advised to ignore the statement as it is completely with neither basis nor authority. “Procedures for taking such far-reaching decisions are prescribed in the constitution of the party, so is the organ so empowered to take it. “It is no longer news that the Ali Modu Sheriff-led National Working Committee and indeed all national officers were removed by the party’s convention, which is the highest decision-making organ of the Party. “Senator Sheriff and his cohorts, therefore, lack the locus to take any decision on behalf of the Party.”