Usurpers can’t force me out as PDP chairman — Sheriff

Ali Modu Sheriff, new national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)

The embattled chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, has told the Federal High Court, sitting in Port Harcourt, that he remains the national chairman of the party.
The former Borno State governor described the caretaker committee of the party, headed by Senator Ahmed Makarfi, as “a group of usurpers and a contraption” that was set up in defiance of valid court orders.

In a certified court processes made available to reporters, in Lagos, through his lawyer, Ajibola Oluyede, Sheriff was praying the court to hold that only he, and no one else, can preside over a convention or meeting where party leaders could be chosen.
The Rivers State Chapter of the PDP had sued Sherriff, Prof. Adewale Oladipo (who was PDP’s national secretary), the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the Inspector-General of Police (I-GP) and the Department of State Services (DSS) before Justice A. Liman of the court in Port Harcourt.
The judge, last week, restrained Sherriff and Oladipo from parading themselves as the chairman, secretary or members of the national executive committee or national working committee of the PDP until the suit was determined.
But, Sheriff and Oladipo, in a motion on notice, dated May 27, said those who sued them lacked “the authority and locus” to institute the suit on behalf of the party.
They also urged the court to discharge the ex-parte order restraining them from holding their office.
According to the plaintiffs, Justice Liman made the order on May 24, which is 12 days after Justice Ibrahim Buba of the Federal High Court in Lagos had restrained the party from conducting elections into offices of national chairman, national secretary and national auditor.
They prayed the court to hold that by a community reading of Section 223 of the 1999 Constitution and Articles 33(1) (a) and 35(1) of the PDP Constitution, only they were empowered to chair and preside over the party’s convention and all meetings, through which available national offices can be filled.chairman-