Sheriff, a General without soldiers in PDP, says Fayose

The Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, has described a factional National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, as a General without soldiers in the party.
He challenged Sheriff to go for a popularity test with his rival, Senator Ahmed Markafi.
The governor said apart from Markafi having more members, the calibre of people posing as Sheriff’s supporters were political nonentities.
Fayose, who is also the Chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum, in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Idowu Adelusi, stressed that the who-is-who in the PDP were solidly behind Markafi.
“Senator Ali Modu Sheriff is a General without soldiers let alone having a battalion. If he is sure of his stand and strength, let him go for a popularity contest with Senator Ahmed Markafi. Apart from the fact that most of the PDP members are with Markafi, let Nigerians check out the calibre of people supporting them.
“Without any gainsaying, Markafi is high above Sheriff. Markafi has the state governors supporting him. The National Assembly caucus are backing Markafi. Former ministers, former governors, former members of the National Assembly are also in support of Markafi.
“In quantity and quality of support, Markafi is shoulder higher above Sheriff who is only deluding himself with the rent-a-crowd politicians that he goes to town with. All the organs of the party, including the Board of Trustees, are firmly behind Markafi,” he said.
Reacting to a question on last week’s Court of Appeal judgment that favoured Sheriff in the leadership tussle, Fayose opined that truth would prevail at the end of the day.
”The court cannot choose our chairman for us. This issue is about democracy and the people. It is the PDP members that can decide who their leaders are. This, they have demonstrated in the Port Harcourt convention that was done in accordance with the constitution of the party.
“The party’s leadership is the National Caretaker Committee headed by Senator Ahmed Markafi and it shall remain so until we do our convention to elect our leaders,” he added.
On the possibility of working with Sheriff, Fayose described the former Borno State governor as a political poison that should be avoided.
Clarifying his initial support for Sheriff, the governor said he backed out of supporting him when he discovered Sheriff’s ulterior motives.
“I don’t have regret supporting him ab initio, but when we discovered his discrepancies, I backed out. I saw that he is unfit, he is a pariah.
“Sheriff is an agent of the All Progressives Congress. He is a mole being used by the Federal Government to weaken and destabilise the PDP so that the APC will not have any virile opposition,” the governor stressed.
Fayose lamented that it was through Sheriff’s activities that the PDP lost the Ondo and Edo governorship polls.
He, however, gave the assurance that such trick would not work in Ekiti State.
Fayose also described Sheriff as too desperate and ambitious.
Fayose said Sheriff once flew into Port Harcourt from Abuja to meet him and Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State over the party’s leadership matter when he realised they were withdrawing their support for him because of his alleged scheming.
“He (Sheriff) flew from Abuja to meet us in Port Harcourt. He came, prostrated, he held a Quran in his left hand and was saying, ‘Fayose, du Allah, I beg, don’t let me be shamed.’
“He was begging; we now told him, ‘you are not chairman yet, you are playing all these pranks, we are worried.’”
The governor vowed that he and other members of the party belonging to the Makarfi-led faction of the PDP would never accept Sheriff as their national chairman.