By Ismail Omipidan
Governor of Rivers State, Nyesome Wike declared, yesterday, that the crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP ) will be resolved before 2019.
Wike also said the crisis will, in no way, affect the fortunes of the party and insisted that based on the performance of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), the PDP is on course to win the next polls.
He said these, yesterday, in a television interview monitored in Lagos.
National Chairman of the party, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, who appeared on the same interview session, dismissed plans to hold a stakeholders’ meeting in Abuja, today.
Sheriff insisted that, as the party’s national chairman, he did not call any PDP meeting, in reaction to a meeting scheduled for today, by the Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led group.
This was even as Wike urged PDP supporters not to lose hope over a recent judgment of the Court of Appeal, which affirmed Sheriff as the national chairman of the party.
The Rivers governor said since the matter would get up to the Supreme Court, he is confident that the apex court would decide in favour of Makarfi’s faction. “It is not because you have lost at the Appeal Court, therefore, there is no more hope. No, the Supreme Court is still there. It is the final court. So, I can tell you that we have hope because the case is so clear. I do know that if you read the dissenting judgment, the point I am making will be clear to you,” he added. On the fortunes of the party, ahead of the 2019 elections, Wike, again, said: “Based on the performance of the ruling party, if we go to elections in 2019, the PDP will win. If you are talking about crisis, I can assure it will be resolved before 2019. It may only affect states where the PDP is not in power. For instance, in Rivers, no crisis can affect PDP chances in the state. Even if the matter is resolved tomorrow and election is to take place, two days later, PDP will still win in Rivers.”
On the other hand, Sherif dismissed insinuations he does not have the support of bigwigs in the party’s. “If you don’t understand the organs of the party, there is nothing like former ministers’ forum; in any case they were not the ones who brought me in as national chairman. I became national chairman through due process. The National Execuitve Committee (NEC) met and through voting, I got about 69 votes. There were four other aspirants. I am in touch with the governors, making consultations on how to hold credible convention and elect new officers of the party.
“As national chairman, I have not called for any meeting. I am making consultations; I will only call for a meeting after the consultations. I said on Saturday that there is no sacrifice too big to make for the party. I want to believe that at my level, I can’t make statements that cannot be justified. I always act within the rule of law. As of today, since the judgment, I have spoken to seven governors, members of the Board of Trustees and their views tally with mine. You can’t step down without a convention…”
The sacrifice I am talking about making is that I don’t intend to run the tenure prescribed for me.
If I am a mole, he (Wike) was among those who asked me to come and be the party’s national chairman. He invited me thinking I would take instructions from him,” Sheriff, said.