· Explains why govs, others are against Sheriff
· Injunction granted to Sheriff done error –Makarfi
 
Senator Ali Modu Sher­iff-led faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and for­mer National Vice Chairman of the party, Dr. Cairo Ojoug­boh, yesterday said that they are ready to end the crisis bedevil­ing the party.
Addressing newsmen in Abuja, Ojuogboh said that they are ready to end the crisis on the condition that Sheriff is al­lowed to hold a fresh national convention and handover the party’s leadership to a demo­cratically elected national chair­man, not appointed.
He also explained that the crisis in the party is about 2019 presidential ticket, adding that some leaders of the party who are nursing presidential and vice presidential ambitions have turned against Sheriff and fuelled the crisis rocking the party.
Ojuogboh stressed that Sheriff is not insisting on hold­ing on to the chairmanship po­sition, but that he feels that he should not be disgraced out of office the way it was done at the ill-fated national convention in Port Harcourt, Rivers state.
Explaining the genesis of the crisis, Ojuogboh explained that some leaders of the par­ty, especially some governors, moved against Sheriff at the Port Harcourt convention just because they were afraid that he may not support their choice of the presidential candidate of the party in 2019.
“They are fronting for a certain politician from the North to become the presiden­tial candidate of the PDP in 2019 and they felt that Sheriff will not support his ambition and they started pushing for his removal.
“In fact, let me tell you where the problem started. It started in Jigawa after three million people came out to wel­come Sheriff. Thereafter, they started insinuating that Sheriff wants to be presidential candi­date of the party.
“So, all these fight you see is about the presidential candida­cy of the PDP come 2019. And what Sheriff is saying is that he alone cannot determine the presidential candidate and that no governor can do that.
“Why Sheriff says that his tenure will end in 2018 was that in 2014, at a convention, there was a vote for Mu’azu to have a four-year term, and not to complete the tenure of Baman­ga Tukur. He was given a fresh mandate the day that President Goodluck Jonathan was voted in as a candidate of the party. There was a convention for a stretch four-year tenure.
“As far as I am concerned, Ali Modu Sheriff is ready to step down but he does not want to be disgraced. He must be given the opportunity to sit at a convention where he will handover properly. And this is what we have told the gover­nors, what is fair is fair.
“Ali Modu Sheriff did not say that he wants to continue to be Chairman but what he said is, look, I want to handover to a democratically elected chair­man of the party that is elect­ed by the people and not ap­pointed. As far as the law is concerned, sheriff is still the PDP Chairman today but he is ready to convene a convention to handover.”
Meanwhile, the Nation­al Caretaker Committee led by Senator Ahmed Makarfi has said that the court injunc­tion granted in favour of Sher­iff by a Federal High Court on Thursday was done in error and as such cannot stand.
The committee, in a state­ment signed by its Spokesman, Adedayo Adeyeye, the party also described Ojougboh’s pos­tulations as lacking in credibil­ity.
“We believe it was granted in error by misrepresentation to his Lordship. Two judgements given this week by two justic­es of the FCT High Court and Federal high Court are to the ef­fect that Sheriff was never even a Chairman of the PDP. He was described as a ‘busy body’ in one of the judgements. How can the Court then grant an in­junction to a ‘busy body’ who has no locus in the party?
“Cairo Ojougboh is a rab­ble rouser trying to hold on to the last straw for relevance. He was part of the stakeholders group in Abuja who were vehe­mently opposed to Sheriff. Now he claims to be his ardent sup­porter. Wherein lies his credi­bility ? This people will keep on shopping for all manner of ct orders. But they will fail in the end,” he said. -culled from The Authority