PDP Crisis: Jerry Gana’s Faction Holds Parallel Convention, Modu Sheriff’s Faction in Debacle

PDP Crisis: Jerry Gana’s Faction Holds Parallel Convention, Modu Sheriff’s Faction in Debacle

The crisis rocking the former ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) assumed a deeper dimension Saturday as party elder and former Minister of Information, Professor Jerry Gana, has carried out his threat of conducting a parallel national convention.

The Gana-led elders’ faction is currently holding its national convention in Abuja, same time as the party’s scheduled convention currently ongoing in Port Harcourt, the Rivers state capital.

Those attending the Abuja convention include former Minister, Tunde Adeniran, former Deputy Senate president,Ibrahim Mantu, former presidential aide, Doyin Okupe, and former FCT Minister, Bala Mohammed, among others.

It will be recalled that the founding fathers’ faction had announced the “removal” of the de facto National Chairman and leader of the Port Harcourt convention, Mr. Ali Modu Sheriff, claiming they had taken over the administration of the party.

Meanwhile, the Cable reports that the Sheriff faction is on the verge of cancelling its Port Harcourt convention, with a caretaker committee to be set up that would oversee the affairs of the party.

“Nyesom Wike, governor of Rivers state, and Sheriff are at loggerheads now over the chairman’s decision to cancel the convention,” a top party official said.

“Wike told the chairman that he was trying to destroy the party by his decision, but Sheriff is bent on having his way.”

This may be in connection to an order of a federal high court in Lagos stopping elections into some of the principal offices of the party, as a result of which the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had announced that it would not monitor elections into the offices of the national chairman, national secretary, and national auditor.