Claimant to the office of the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, on Friday, asserted that he is regarded as a spoiler because of his tendency to fight against internal wrongdoings in the party.
Senator Ali Modu Sheriff
Addressing a press conference in Abuja, Sheriff also said that he is against the formation of another political party, noting that there was no guarantee that if the present PDP gave up its certificate of registration, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) would agree to register a new party.
Therefore, while encouraging all those who have left PDP to return, he said his leadership would rebuild the party and return it to the grassroots, Nigerian Tribune reports.
Sheriff, who was reacting to his labeling as ‘a spoiler’ by an unnamed governor from the South South, spoke through his faction’s deputy national chairman, Dr Cairo Ojougboh.
He said: “It has been brought to our notice that a governor of the South South described the Senator Ali Modu Sheriff-led NWC as spoilers.
“The truth is that we ‘spoil’ impunity. We ‘spoil’ imposition. We ‘spoil’ corruption and greed and we ‘spoil’ wickedness, innate wickedness to fellow party faithful.
“We, therefore, call on our state governors to shun corruption, wickedness, greed and impunity which brought us to where we are today.
“Recall that in the 2015 general elections, we lost elections in 10 states where we had governors in the North due to impunity. The states are: Benue, Kogi, Niger, Jigawa, Plateau, Kaduna, Katsina, Kebbi, Bauchi and Adamawa.”
“We in the NWC are making all necessary arrangements to reposition our great larty. We intend to return the party to the original owners, the grass roots.
“We encourage those who left the Party to return. We are not going to allow our party to die. We therefore will not submit our registration certificate to INEC in order to form another party.
“The politics of yesterday is very different from that of today. There is no guarantee that today’s INEC will register you once you give up your certificate. So our task is to rebuild and reposition the party.”