The protracted legal battle between Senator Ahmed Makarfi, the former governor of Kaduna State and his counterpart from Borno, Senator Alli-Modu Sheriff over the leadership of the country’s main opposition — the Peoples Democratic Party has been resolved by the Supreme Court yesterday as it declared Ahmed Makarfi the authentic chairman.
The squabble between the two has led to the lose of critical elections, including governorship seats in Edo and Ondo states and legislative seats in many others.
Across the country, the opposition party has been grappling with a loss of membership to President Muhammadu Buhari’s All Progressives Congress (APC) after it suffered an embarrassing defeat in the 2015 presidential election under the leadership of former President Goodluck Jonathan and had to face the ruling party’s crackdown on corruption. The campaign trains of selected PDP candidates in the affected states lost steam as rival candidates arose within the party to challenge the credibility of the faction that nominated them for the election. In many of the instances, as was the case in Ondo, the litigations were resolved few days to the election, giving candidates in rival political parties a better chance of winning the elections.
The unanimous decision of the apex court read by Justice Bode Rhodes Vivour yesterday declared Markafi the authentic chairman of the PDP and upturned the judgment given earlier by the Court of Appeal in Port Harcourt, which declared Alhaji Sheriff chairman of the party.
Comments trailing the judgment agreed that it could put the PDP on a ‘recovery mode’ and restore many of the party’s prodigal members, especially as the ruling APC has its own share of internal challenges.
They remarked that Nigeria was heading towards a one-party state and the apex court judgment would rally the opposition once again and save the country’s democracy.
Former Governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi, described it as “the work of God” who used the Supreme Court to heal the wounds of the PDP family. He noted that the judgment would usher in an effective opposition that would contribute meaningfully to governance and bring the country out of the current recession, as well as contain various agitations.
Calling for unity among party members, former Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Mr. Olisa Metuh appealed to members who defected to the APC prior to the 2015 general elections to return and help rebuild the party. Metuh called on members to discountenance mistakes of the past and build “a new PDP” around the former President, Jonathan.
