Bayelsa State governor, Henry Seriake Dickson, has called on all Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) faithful and leaders to respect the judgement of the Supreme Court and team up with the Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led National Caretaker Committee to move the party forward.
According to him, since the apex court has spoken as the final arbiter, PDP loyalists should cooperate with Makarfi to deliver reconciliation and an acceptable Unity National Convention within the shortest possible time frame.
He also advised the former national chairman of PDP, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff and his supporters to team up with Makarfi to move the party forward.
Dickson’s advice came amidst insistence by Sheriff faction of PDP in Lagos State that the judgment did not apply to them.
The governor who is also the chairman of the National Reconciliation Committee of the PDP, in his first official reaction to the Supreme Court judgement on the leadership crisis rocking the PDP, which authenticated Makarfi as the party’s chairman, said the verdict produced no victor, no vanquished.
Dickson in a statement issued in Yenagoa on Sunday by his Special Adviser (Media Relations), Francis Agbo, therefore called on the contending forces to see it as such.
Governor Dickson advised the Senator Makarfi -led National Caretaker Committee and all leaders of the party to deliberately and ‘‘consistently pursue true and genuine reconciliation of all contending parties in the party with a view to organising an all-inclusive National Unity Convention to select the national leadership of PDP. ‘’
He believed that true reconciliation and a National Unity Convention would build confidence in the party as well as ‘‘endear Nigerians to PDP and persuade those who had defected from our great party to return to PDP ahead of 2019.’’
While stressing that the judiciary only adjudicated on matters but never reconciled contending parties, Dickson said now that the Supreme Court had delivered the much expected judgement, the PDP must now reconcile and truly put its house in order to effectively play its role as the leading opposition party in Nigeria.
Dickson said, ‘‘I call on Senator Ali Modu Sheriff and his supporters and all contending parties in our great party, PDP, to respect the verdict of the Supreme Court as the final arbiter. I urge all contending parties in the PDP to embrace peace and genuine reconciliation and support the Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led Caretaker Committee of our party with a view to organising an all- inclusive National Unity Convention.
“Without such support, genuine reconciliation cannot take place; without such support, the Caretaker Committee will have a herculean task organising an acceptable convention, without genuine reconciliation, the party cannot move forward…’’
The governor said that the prolonged PDP leadership crisis was avoidable in the first place, and believed that the PDP leaders had learnt their lessons, hoping that the PDP leadership would put in place measures to forestall re-occurrence of the needles crisis and litigations.
