Sheriff still in politics but on sabbatical - Ojougboh

A former national vice chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the South South, Dr. Cairo Ojougboh, has said that the ousted national chairman of the party, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, is on sabbatical.

Dr. Ojougboh, who was Sheriff’s deputy at the peak of the leadership crisis in the party, however, told Daily Trust in an exclusive interview yesterday in Abuja, that Sheriff was still in politics.

When asked to name the political party Sheriff was aligning with, Ojougboh said, “he is very much in politics; he is strategizing.”

He added, “He (Sheriff) is on sabbatical for now; that you can quote me; he is on sabbatical. You know he is a man of value to the political system and the political system needs him.”

Soon after he was removed by the Supreme Court, Sheriff went underground and only resurfaced briefly when he visited Aso Rock Villa where he briefly met with then Acting President Yemi Osinbajo before he disappeared again.

Asked to explain when the former Borno governor would resume active politicking, Ojougboh, who had already defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) with his supporters, said, “He cannot stay out for too long; I can assure you a lot of strategizing work is going on underground.”

He said the PDP could not pose a challenge to the APC in 2019, claiming that the level of impunity in the party had derailed the vision and mission of its founding fathers.

“It is difficult to bring PDP together because of impunity; the South West PDP has its own agenda which is different from the agenda of the emperors of the South South,” he said.