Jerry Gana heads PDP reconciliation committee

 
The Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), led by Senator Walid Jibrin, has inaugurated an 18-man reconciliation committee to unite party stalwarts, leaders and members ahead of the August 17 national convention of the party in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.


It would be recalled that two party chieftains, Senator Ahmed Makarfi and Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, were engaged in a legal battle over the leadership of the party.

While the Makarfi-led faction of the PDP was pushing for the planned Port Harcourt convention to hold, the Sheriff-led faction opposed the convention.

The faction described the Makarfi-led caretaker committee as an illegal contraption, with Sheriff claiming that he was the legally recognised chairman of the party who had the responsibility to organise national convention to produce new leaders.

While inaugurating the reconciliation committee, led by a former minister of information, Jerry Gana, yesterday in Abuja, Jibrin expressed optimism that the committee would put an end to the lingering leadership crisis bedeviling the party since May.

‎Jibrin said that the BoT, as the conscience of the party, cannot fold its arms and watch the PDP destroyed.
He said that the party needed to re-position itself and embrace the vision and mission of its founding fathers.

He called on party leaders who still had cases in court to withdraw them for the committee to resolve all the contentious issues politically, stressing that if the BoT did not intervene, God will not be happy with it.

He said: “We had sleepless nights, trying our best to see that the party’s integrity is maintained with reference to the dreams of our founding fathers. We should not allow the PDP to die. Based on the dream and foundation of this party, our founding fathers, some of them are alive and we are grateful to them.

“Some attempts were made in the past by individuals to resolve this issue and the exercise is still on-going. We want to agree that this our party will rely on its constitution, and if we do, we must also agree that this party is supreme, this party is above every one of us.

“It is above individuals and therefore, we must all ensure that we resolve this matter politically. It is on this issue of political consideration that we decide to form this committee. ‎Even those that have problems should cool down so that their names will be written in the history of not only the PDP but Nigeria.”