Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Caretaker Committee Senator Ahmed Makarfi, has described as “selfish” Bayelsa State Governor Seriake Dickson’s proposal on the party’s crisis.
According to Makarfi, governor Dickson took a unilateral decision against the unanimous proposal drafted at a meeting of 11 PDP governors with former President Goodluck Jonathan.
He said Dickson’s proposal, submitted to court-backed chairman Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, is a mischievous act that does not bode well for the party.
The former Kaduna State Governor spoke in Kaduna at the weekend when he visited the secretariat of the State Correspondents Chapel of NUJ, which was gutted by fire last week.
The former Kaduna State Governor said: “Just a week before Governor Dickson submitted his report to Modu Sheriff, the 11 PDP governors including himself; met with former President Goodluck Jonathan and came out with a unanimous proposal on the way out of the crisis in the party. Then, he (Dickson) pulled out and made a proposal, which he presented to Modu Sheriff.
“Well, for us the issues in the PDP are not just about conducting convention, they are fundamental. How do you go for convention if you don’t address these fundamental issues and achieve reconciliation? You have not talked about the problems, you have not sorted them out and you are more concerned about a committee to organise convention. That means you will go and do convention while the crisis is still on.
“Governor Dickson was at the meeting of the governors and the former President where they came out with a unanimous proposal, so, how can he pull himself out a week after and make his own proposal? If he had anything contrary to what they agreed on, why didn’t he suggest it at that meeting? It didn’t make sense. Of 11 governors, you pulled yourself out and you made a separate proposal and presented to Modu Sheriff.
“The proposal by the former President and the 11 governors was presented to us, to the BOT Chairman and to Modu Sheriff. If anything is going to change, they should go back to former President Jonathan and the other governors to discuss and review the responses from us, from BOT, from Modu Sheriff.
“But, he spoke with me informally and said he was bringing his proposal, which I never saw. He called the former President and they were to meet on Wednesday, then he also called the BOT Chairman, who gave him appointment for Wednesday, only for him to go and submit his proposal to Modu Sheriff to go ahead and conduct the convention. And that is what Sheriff has been looking for. Now, he got somebody asking him to go ahead and conduct convention.
“So, what is Governor Dickson up to? I don’t know, but it is definitely an agenda not good for the PDP. His proposal is even a breach of the Court of Appeal judgment, because he is suggesting going for convention in June. Court of Appeal said you cannot hold convention until August this year based on the tenure it recognised”, he explained.
