PDP supremacy battle continues as Sheriff, Makarfi take case to Supreme Court

March 6, 2017

Former President Goodluck Jonathan’s intervention for a peaceful resolution of the lingering crisis in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) may have suffered a major setback as the Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led National Caretaker Committee is already at the Supreme Court to challenge the recent Court of Appeal judgment in favour of the Senator Alli Modu Sheriff leadership.

Jonathan had accepted to assist in resolving the crisis in the party, a decision believed to have brought some relief and renewed confidence to stakeholders, who believed that a political solution to the crisis was possible after all.

But the excitement arising from this was cut short the moment the Makarfi group headed for the Supreme Court to appeal the judgment that conceded the PDP leadership to the Sheriff group.
THISDAY gathered at the weekend that Sheriff has been served with the notice of appeal at the Supreme Court.

A top member of the Sheriff-led leadership and spokesman, Mr. Daniel Mikko, told THISDAY last night that the notice of appeal signified the resumption of legal fireworks by both parties.

By implication, Mikko added that the latest move might have put the reconciliatory talks in jeopardy. He said this was so because nobody would be going into such discussions with confidence.
“Nobody will be comfortable continuing with the peace talks once there is a Sword of Damocles dangling over his head”, he said.

Although the Makarfi-led caretaker committee has vowed to proceed with the appeal to the Supreme Court, spokesman of the group, Chief Dayo Adeyeye, said his group had nothing against the move by Jonathan to broker peace in the party.

“The former president has made good effort; let him continue. We have nothing against it but the understanding we had with the former president is that we shall continue with peace efforts without prejudice to the ongoing court process.

So, the court process will go on and if there is any political solution, that will be okay. We cannot wait for the political solution before going back to the court,” he said.

Adeyeye explained that there was every reason for them to insist on seeing the appeal through to the Supreme Court in order to put the party in a strong position for negotiation.

However, with regards to the Jonathan peace moves and the renewed effort by the PDP standing committee on reconciliation headed by the Bayelsa State Governor, Henry Dickson, and Senator Ibrahim Mantu, the two sides said they would support the initiative.