Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State on Sunday, May 22, 2016 said that the removal of the national chairman of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, Ali Modu Sherrif, was to save the party from destruction.
Wike said stakeholders of the party had opposed the emergence of Sherrif but he continued to forge ahead, a development which he said was destabilizing the party.
“Because of all the crisis from the different quarters, we had to let him go. What is important is the party and not the individual, No sacrifice for anyone to make as far as PDP is concerned,” Wike said.
He told Vanguard that he had no personal interest in supporting Modu Sherrif as he was the best as at the time he emerged as a stop-gap chairman of the party.
Wike said that the party remains the only for the future of Nigeria, hence it will continue to grow and make progress.
He said the governors will not watch the party die, saying his will not forgive them if they do so.
The governor said the party leaders would work towards maintaining unity among all members of the party.
Wike said despite the challenges, the 2016 national convention was successful as the party had been repositioned in the interest of the nation.
In a dramatic series of events on Saturday, May 21, 2016, at the national convention of the main opposition party in Nigeria, Senator Sherrif was sacked along with all members of the national working committee of the party which he chaired. Following his failed attempt to scuttle the convention, Sherrif rejected the decision on the party and held an impromptu press conference declaring himself the “chairman of the party till 2018”.
An interim caretaker committee was set up made up of seven chieftains of the party led by former Kaduna Governor, Senator Ahmed Makarfi. The interim committee was mandated to steer the affairs of the party for the next 90 days within which it would convene a national convention where leaders would be elected.
The party also cancelled the zoning system but retained the agreement to zone the presidential ticket to the Northern states of the country.
