The lingering feud that followed the emergence of former Borno State Governor, Ali Modu Sheriff as National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party has taken a new turn with the Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Abdullahi Jalo, warning the chairman against elongating his interim tenure.
According to him, the new chairman must shut his ears to people seeking to elongate his tenure to 2019.
Speaking to our correspondent in Gombe, Jalo said Governor Ayo Fayose of the Ekiti State and some politicians from the southern part of the country were seeking to extend Sheriff’s tenure to 2019 in a very dangerous way.
He said when Sheriff was nominated, what united and calmed down frayed nerves among the members was the directive by its National Executive Council to Sheriff to come out with an acceptable zoning formula which the latter did. Jalo said it was proposed that the presidential candidate of the party would come from the northern part of the country, while the National Chairman of the Party would come from the southern part.
“Everybody knows about this development and it’s very dangerous for anybody to try to twist the NEC decision”, Jalo insisted. The Deputy National Publicity Secretary then advised Sheriff not to make a U-turn on his pledge that he would not stay beyond May 21, 2016.
He also advised Sheriff to continue with the plan of getting the new National Chairman of the Party within his short interim period.
He said according to the time-table released by Sheriff and the party which was forwarded to the Independent National Electoral Commission, the process will start with Ward Congress on April 23, followed by Local Government Congress, the following week. It will then be followed by State Congress and then the Zonal Congress, in same sequence, and then, the National Convention slated for May 21, 2016.
Jalo said the party should adhere strictly to the time-table, just as he advised members to support the effort to revive the party. He thus warned against any attempt to extend the tenure of the National Chairman.
