PDP BoT asks Sheriff, others to withdraw cases

The Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party has asked all its members who have instituted cases against the party in court to withdraw them immediately.

The board took this decision after its meeting with members of the party’s National Caretaker Committee and the PDP Stakeholders in Abuja on Thursday.

Before arriving at this decision, the board first met in the morning with its expanded caucuses from the National Assembly and the PDP Stakeholders.

The board’s meeting started 10am and ended around 1.28pm.

The expanded meeting started few minutes after 2pm and ended around 6.38pm.

The Chairman of the National Caretaker Committee, Ahmed Makarfi, and the removed National Chairman of the party, Ali Modu Sheriff, came for the meeting in the morning.

But the two men were asked to leave since the board was going to discuss the leadership crisis in the party.

However, while Makarfi returned for the afternoon meeting in the afternoon, Sheriff stayed away.

Sheriff, the former National Sectary of the party, Prof. Wale Oladipo and its former National Auditor,  Alhaji Fatai Adeyanju, are currently in court to challenge their removal from office.

The PDP is also in court to legalise the national convention it had in Port Harcourt, Rivers State on Saturday, where Sheriff and members of his National Working Committee were removed.

At the Abuja meeting, the BoT, through its Secretary, Chief Ojo Maduekwe, said all the parties in court must withdraw their cases.

He said that the party’s machinery of resolving crisis must be followed in order to restore peace to the party.

Meanwhile, the Nigeria Police Force says it cannot vacate the headquarters of the PDP until all warring factions can guarantee the police that it will not cause any mayhem in Abuja.

The Force Public Relations Officer, Olabisi Kolawole, said this during an interview with one of our correspondents on Thursday while reacting to the crisis rocking the PDP.

The police had on Monday revealed that some aggrieved factional leaders and members of the PDP had perfected plans to engage thugs from across the country to join them in threatening public peace and security in Abuja