TheCable

Ahmed Makarfi, chairman of the caretaker committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), says he will continue to plead with Ali Modu Sheriff, factional chairman of the party, to tow the path of dialogue.

He described Sheriff as his friend, saying it is important for the party to unite ahead of the Edo governorship election.

The caretaker chairman said this in Abuja on Monday when he received the report of the PDP primary election in Edo.

“Once again, I call upon the former chairman of PDP, my colleague and friend Sheriff, and those associating with him to follow the part of dialogue,” he said.

“I will continue to plead that what you cannot achieve through peace or dialogue, you cannot achieve it through the opposite. They should not to do anything further that will cost PDP harm in Edo state.”

Makarfi said it is impossible to organise any valid primary election in Edo again, using the requirement of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to buttress his point.

“This means validly and legally, no any primary can be conducted apart from the one which we conducted and monitored by INEC,” he said.

“If the intention is not to cause the PDP to fail the election, any talk towards conducting other primaries in Edo by anybody either within or outside the state is supposed to have ceased by this time.”

Makarfi commended members of the primary committee for living above the board while carrying out the assignment given to them.

He said that the committee had set a standard that needed to be emulated at all levels of the party’s primary to make the election transparent.

Dave Umahi, governor of Ebonyi and chairman of the election committee, said the primary was peaceful and successful.

Umahi urged party members to continue to believe in PDP as well as support the party’s candidate in the September 10 election.

He commended the maturity and respect Makarfi and his team accorded to Sheriff in handling the party leadership crisis.

He also called on leaders of the party to persuade Sheriff to discontinue the path he was going in order to have a united house in the PDP.

“Let me also appeal to Sheriff that no one can be greater than the party. He may have been wronged on moral ground, but by the reason of our party’s constitution, let him have a rethink,” he said.