The Supreme Court has declared the Ahmed Makarfi Caretaker Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as validly constituted.
The 3-man Supreme Court panel led by Justice Olabode Rhodes-Vivour in the judgement ruled that Senator Ali-Modu Sheriff ceases to be the party’s national chairman and ordered Ahmed Makarfi to take over the leadership of the party.
Both men have been at loggerheads since May 21 2016 when Senator Ali Modu Sheriff was purportedly removed at the party’s convention held in Port Harcourt.
Makarfi’s supporters had described the Sheriff’s faction of the party as “agents of darkness“, insisting that the former Governor of Borno State, is not the Chairman of the party.
The PDP noted that the ‘group’, which it described as non-PDP members, had in a statement tried to sustain it’s illegal claim to the leadership of the Party, but insisted that it would not leave them to continue to deceive Nigerians.
While the Makarfi faction enjoyed the support of most of the organs of the PDP, the Sheriff faction was declared the authentic leadership by the Court of Appeal in February.
Subsequently, Senator Sheriff officially resumed work at the national secretariat of the Party during which he expressed optimism that he would return the Party to the people.
As the crisis rocking the Party continued, many Makarfi supporters such as the Chairman of the PDP Governors Forum, Ayodele Fayose, continued to stress that Ali Modu Sheriff could not lead the Party and hence moved to appeal the judgement.
The Ekiti State Governor went further to state that he could end up leaving the Party if the outcome of the Supreme Court verdict on the leadership tussle did not favour the Makarfi-led caretaker committee.
However, recently, Fayose reaffirmed the determination of the PDP Governors to remain with the party regardless of the final verdict.
