Ousted chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Ali Modu Sheriff has finally taken over the affairs of the party after successfully gaining entry to the Wadata Plaza National Secretariat of the party.
Mr. Sheriff led his group to storm the secretariat early on Monday morning, affirming that he will remain the PDP chairman till 2018.
According to Sheriff: “The Party (PDP) belongs to Nigerians and not the Nigeria police or the people that were handpicked at Port Harcourt by Gov Wike and his cohorts as the man who purported be acting as the national chairman of the Party, one thing remains, there was no convention in Port-Harcourt because I cancelled it.
He further stated that, “When you are talking of a caretaker assuming office here last week, the caretaker committee was not known to the constitution of the Party while the Board of Trustees (BOT) is only an advisory body in the party, so none of the has the power to be running the affairs of our party, Senator Ahmed Makarfi led Caretaker has no role here, it is an illegal body in the eyes of the law.
“I don’t know why the police can say we cannot enter our offices when we have a valid court order to that effect, we will take this matter beyond the Nigeria Police, the law will take its course in this matter.
“We have a court order in our hand to allow us to go into our office but the inspector general of police, after having a truce with him that nobody should be allowed until we have decided, he decided to take the law into his hands and allow the wrong people.
“We will be law abiding, but Nigeria Police is made for Nigerian people to observe the rule of law. The law clearly stated that the Inspector General of Police should give us police to go into the office, but he brought platoon of police to block the office.
“We will go back because we do not want some miscreants to take the law into their hands. We will wait and take the matter beyond Nigeria Police Force,” he added.
Sheriff was removed from office on May 21, 2016 during the party’s national convention.
Mr. Sheriff was chairman before the party’s national convention held in Port Harcourt bon May 21.