Supreme court sacks Modu-Sheriff, reinstates Makarfi as PDP chairman

*Judgment badluck for anti-APC alliance

The Supreme Court on Wednesday removed Senator Ali Modu-Sheriff as the National Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and declared Senator Ahmed Makarfi as the authentic national chairman of the party.

The first issue resolved in favour of the Makarfi faction was the preliminary objection by the Ali Modu Sheriff faction, holding that the appeal by the Makarfi faction was valid.

The Senator Ahmed Makarfi faction of the People’s Democratic Party has won the first of the two preliminary issues for resolution by the Supreme Court.

The judgment was ongoing as at press time.

The apex court also held that the suit filed by Makarfi at the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt was not an abuse of court process as wrongly held by the majority judgment of the Court of Appeal, also in Port Harcourt.

Judgement badluck for anti-APC alliance

In the meantime, the judgment on Wednesday morning by the Supreme Court has been described as badluck for the anti-APC alliance planned some aggrieved members of the governing APC and PDP particular former PDP ministers to unseat the APC from the Villa in 2019.

Recall that the registration of Advanced Peoples Democratic Alliance (APDA) was reported to be contemplated as alternative means of tackling the APC in 2019 whereby some leaders of the APC and Ahmed Makarfi group would form a “formidable” alliance to sack the sitting government.

Whereas the PDP members of the planned alliance, which eventually saw the light of the day with its registration as APDA, were merely being embittered by memory of their March 28, 2015 defeat, those said to be on the alliance were said to be of the camps of two particular leaders one in the North and one in the South aggrieved that their chances had been curtailed in the ongoing affairs of party and government of APC.

Only recently a strong politician of APC in Lagos was said to be warming up to decamp to APDA or stay within continue to work against the party where he is national leader like he was popularly known to have done in Edo and Ondo states during their respective elections.

Whatever the case, a respondent said their plots and plans were now a badluck as the Makarfi group would no longer be in interested in any alliance with anybody. “Now the PDP will remain a party to face the APC and it will then be left to those allegedly aggrieved APC leaders either to stay and cooperate with other leaders to move the party and country forward or publicly decamp to PDP.  But for anybody to think that he will stay within the APC and work against the party’s successes, it will be a huge joke,” he said.