Makarfi rejects June 30 PDP convention date, slams Dickson

The Chairman of the sacked Caretaker Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party, Ahmed Makarfi, has rejected the proposal by the Standing Committee on Reconciliation of the PDP, headed by Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State.

The former Kaduna State governor said he never endorsed the proposals as claimed by Dickson.

The Dickson-led committee, which submitted its report to the National Chairman of the party, Ali Modu Sheriff, on Tuesday, recommended that the party should hold its national convention on June 30.

The committee had claimed that all stakeholders, including the Makarfi faction, were consulted before arriving at the recommendation.

Part of the committee’s proposal, which Makarfi faulted, is that the National Convention Planning Committee should consist of seven governors and seven senators, which must include the Deputy Senate President and 12 members of the House of Representatives.

The others, as recommended by the committee, are six members of the Board of Trustees, six national vice-chairmen with one coming from each of the six geopolitical zones, three state chairmen per zone (making 18 ), six serving speakers of the state Houses of Assembly and six former governors.

Others include former presiding officers of the National Assembly, who are still members of the party, six prominent women leaders, six youth leaders, six former ministers and 12 others to be nominated by Sheriff in consultation with the stakeholders.

“The convention committee shall be responsible for the conduct of the elections to all the national offices of the party, including the zoning of such offices,” the proposal partly read.

But Makarfi, in a statement on Wednesday, said Dickson’s claim that he and other stakeholders of the party accepted the proposal was not true.

The former Kaduna State governor, however, noted that he met with Dickson on Tuesday, where the content of the proposal was discussed, adding that he “pointed out the problems with the proposal.”

The former governor stated that the report that he accepted Sheriff as the national chairman of the party was false.

The statement partly read, “This is to debunk a report presented by Governor Seriake Dickson that I accepted Ali Modu Sheriff as the national chairman of the PDP and the convention scheduled for June 30.

“I am shocked and disappointed that the governor of Bayelsa State made a public presentation of a purported report approved or endorsed by us and other stakeholders as reported.

“He met me yesterday (Tuesday) and I pointed out the problems with his proposals. I specifically told him that it (the proposal) would go against even the Court of Appeal judgment.

“At the end (of the meeting), I told him as the caretaker committee chairman that whatever is approved by the organs of the party that we represent, we will work with. I advised him to revert to his colleagues and other organs. But what we are seeing now is that we endorsed his proposal, which is completely false.

“So, this is coming to debunk the insinuation that we accepted Sheriff as the national chairman to conduct the convention or that we accepted Governor Dickson’s proposals.”