The Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led National Caretaker Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has directed the Edo state chapter of the party to ignore the purported suspension of its executive committee by claimant of the office of the national chairman, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff.
Sheriff, had on Saturday, announced the suspension of the exco and setting up a caretaker committee in its place.
But in a reaction, the spokesman of the National Caretaker Committee, Prince Adedayo Adeyeye, said in a statement in Abuja on Saturday that Sheriff has no powers to take such far-reaching decisions.
The statement said the former National Chairman was acting in desperation to orchestrate the desires of his paymasters.
The statement said: "The general public, in particular leadership and members of the PDP in Edo State are advised to ignore the statement as it is completely with neither basis nor authority.
"Procedures for taking such far reaching decisions are prescribed in the constitution of the party, so is the organs so empowered to take it.
"It is no longer news that the Ali Modu Sheriff led National Working Committee and indeed all national officers were removed by the Party's Convention, which is the highest decision making organ of the Party. Senator Sheriff and his cohorts therefore lack the locus to take any decision on behalf of the Party.
"This purported suspension is clearly part of the desperation of Senator Sheriff and his paymasters to orchestrate confusion that would lead to the failure of the party in the forthcoming gubernatorial election in Edo State; an election that the Party is otherwise very well placed to win.
"The Caretaker Committee recognizes, and would continue to relate with the leadership of the Party in Edo State that was validly elected at the recent Congresses, even as it calls on the members and teeming supporters of the party in the state to remain steadfast and vigilant in the face of the mischief being perpetrated by Sheriff in order to destroy the party."
The Caretaker Committee also appealed to the Nigeria Police, the Department of State Services (DSS) and indeed all security agencies "to call Sheriff to order as well as keep more than an eye on him, so that he doesn't precipitate crisis in any part of the country, for which he is well known, since we, as Nigerians already have enough on our hands to contend with."
