From Fred Itua, Abuja
SENATORS and members of the House of Representatives elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have openly supported newly-constituted national caretaker committee, headed by one of their own, Senator Ahmed Makarfi.
This is coming as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has formally recorgnised the PDP caretaker committee. The committee, which paid a courtesy call on the PDP National Assembly Caucus, yesterday, said it had already met with the electoral body.
In a veiled reference to declarations by the former national chairman, Ali Modu Sheriff, that the caretaker committee was illegal, “on Tuesday, we attended our first official engagement after taking over.
“It was a meeting convened by INEC.
“And, for us to attend a meeting convened by INEC and make useful contributions, that should tell everybody what that means,” Makarfi said.
He told lawmakers that his committee would not do the bidding of any interests and pointed out that the committee’s assignment was to reconcile all aggrieved forces and eventually, conduct the national convention.
In his remark during the courtesy visit, Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, said: “We appeal to you to carry everybody along. Let all the stakeholders be involved to ensure that we are really democratic.
“Nigeria expects so much from us and we should not disappoint them. We want to assure you of our support, our solidarity.”
Senate Minority Leader, Godswill Akpabio commended members of the committee for not demonstrating the attitude of selfish politicians.
“You told Nigerians unequivocally that you were not elected national chairman, but a commiittee set up in line with the constitution of the party.
“That showed clearly that PDP is a party that believes in the rule of law.
“The party has the power to set up any committee including the National Working Committee.
“It can even assign the functions of the national convention to that commiittee, which was the case with your committtee,” Akpabio said.
Before now, Sheriff had described the handing over of the affairs of the party to the caretaker committee as illegal, null and void.
In a statement by his media adviser, Inuwa Bwala, Sheriff insisted the handover exercise was null and void.