PDP crisis: Makarfi-led caretaker committee abandons office
The National Caretaker Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) led by a former governor of Kaduna State, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, has abandoned its temporary office located at No.13 Thaba-Tseka Street, Wuse 2, Abuja.
Reliable sources within the party told Daily Trust yesterday that the committee members were perturbed, following the move to serve them Notice of Contempt of court for meeting in Port Harcourt, on August 17, 2016, for a purported convention which extended their tenure by one year. Before the event, Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court, Abuja, had warned that the organizers of the convention might be arrested for contempt should they go ahead and converge in Port Harcourt. He also ordered the endorsement of Form 48 to be served with the Order against the caretaker committee members and the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmud Yakubu. It was learnt that soon after the convention, attempts made to serve the committee the Form 48 proved abortive, as all the members have abandoned their offices. Our correspondent, who visited the office, yesterday, during working hours, reports that only three security personnel were seen sitting by the gate, which was not locked, while party officials were conspicuously absent, with the official parking space empty.
One of the security personnel, who spoke in confidence, said: “Since the time they returned from the convention, the ogas have stopped coming here.”
Speaking on the development, the Deputy National Chairman and member of the Senator Ali Modu Sheriff’s National Working Committee (NWC), of the PDP, Dr. Cairo Ojougboh, said: “They ran away. We can’t find them. We are still looking for them. I don’t think they will come back to their so-called temporary secretariat in Wuse 2.”
Similarly, a former member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Bernard Mikko, told our correspondent in a telephone interview yesterday that the process of serving the committee with the Notice of Contempt of court was completed but that they were on the run.
“They have been running away because they know the implication of what they did. But, we are looking for them. They have abandoned their offices but we will get them. They have been moving only in the night. I think the day he (Makarfi) will be seen, he will be speaking from the prison.
“But while we are doing this, we are also looking for a political solution within the ambit of the law; they are members of PDP. So, it is not our aim to send them to prison, but, it is our hope that we would remove impunity from the books of the PDP. You see, the problem lies with the governors. One of them is the driving force,” he said.
On why Sheriff had called for the resignation of the Board of Trustees (BoT) chairman, Senator Walid Jibrin, Mikko said: “He (Jibrin) shouldn’t be partial as BoT chairman. He seemed to be partial, that is why Sheriff called for his resignation.”
A chieftain and PDP chairmanship aspirant, Professor Taoheed Adedoja, in a telephone interview, however, said: “No matter the litigation in the party, elders, leaders and founders are trying to find a solution.”
While Makarfi and the spokesman of the caretaker committee, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, did not respond to calls and text messages sent to their mobile phones, the PDP Head of Publicity Unit, Chinwe Nnorom, in a text message, said: “No, they are not served (with court papers) yet.”
The caretaker committee members include: Senator Ahmed Makarfi (chairman), Senator Ben Obi (secretary), Prince Dayo Adeyeye, Odion Ugbesia, Abdul Ningi, Kabiru Usman and Aisha Aliyu.