PDP has fixed its final burial, say ex-ministers

Some former ministers of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) say the forthcoming national convention of the party slated for May 21 in Port Harcourt, Rivers state capital, may turn out being the final burial of the PDP.

According to PUNCH, Abubakar Sulaiman, who presided over the ministry of national planning under former President Goodluck Jonathan, told journalists that unless Ali Modu Sheriff, chairman of the party, retraced his steps from contesting at the convention, the coffin of the party would be nailed at the event.

There has been internal crisis in the party since the office of the chairman was zoned to the north-east where Sheriff hails from.

“Ali Modu Sheriff is there to perform the final funeral rites of the PDP. The May 21 national convention will mark the lying in state of the PDP which will be forever. We will not stop talking until the right thing is done,” he was quoted as saying.

“With what he is doing now, I think he is on a mission. The national convention must not hold on May 21. If it must hold, it will be the day of celebration of funeral rites of the PDP.”

Sulaiman added that it was “the impunity” in the PDP that led to the party’s defeat at the 2015 general election, and urged party members and leaders at all levels to end impunity and re-position the party for future victory.

He described as political fault, the zoning of both the chairmanship and 2019 presidential ticket of the party to the north, claiming that “it is the work of Ali Modu Sheriff and his cohorts”.