Sheriff secretly meets with Ibrahim Babangida and former Niger governor
Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, the appeal court-declared national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) met with former military President Ibrahim Babangida at the latter’s Hilltop mansion in Minna, Niger state on Sunday, February 19.
Sheriff, who maintained that the recent ruling was a victory for the party, visited Babangida with a fromer governor of Niger state, Babangida Aliyu.
Aliyu is touted to be interested in the presidency, but he is yet to formerly make his intention known.
The Eagle Online reports that the trio held a closed-door meeting that lasted for two hours.
READ ALSO: Fayose confident PDP will still win elections
While hosting them, Ibrahim Babangida commended Sheriff for the manner he handled his victory at the Court of Appeal adding: “I am very happy with your statement after the court ruling. It shows that there is room for reconciliation and unity.
“There is the need to bring everybody back together to make the party a formidable opposition party.”
Speaking on the appeal court ruling, Sheriff said: “There is no loser.
“It is just a misunderstanding within a family and we are calling on everybody to come together so that the party can be a formidable one once again.”
He noted: “IBB is our father.
“During our meeting, he said he is happy with my statement after the court ruling.
“He told me to continue that way so that I can bring everybody back together to make the party a formidable opposition party.
“What we want to do now is how to put the party back to shape so that everyone that is aggrieved is brought back as one united family once again.
“Look, united we stand, divided we fall.”
He disclosed that he had called Senator Ahmed Makarfi, the chairman of the other faction of the PDP adding: “And I have called on everybody to come back so that we can work together.”
On his part, former Governor Aliyu urged all the members of the party to support Sheriff.
“He is the Chairman of the party and those of us who love to see solution to this party will continue to find ways of mending.
“Now that we have a legal decision, which supports the position of the matter, even though other people talk about going higher (Supreme Court), others are saying no we should start widening the solution.
“That we don’t waste time in terms of legality.
READ ALSO: Makarfi's PDP accuses APC of influencing appeal court judgement in favour of Sheriff
“That is why for the moment, until anybody is able to go higher and setting aside the decision of the court, for the moment, Ali Modu Sheriff is the Chairman of the party and those of us who love to see solution to this party will continue to find ways of mending.
“I think we should all bury our ambitions.
“You can’t have an ambition without a platform.
“We need to have a platform first of all and we are in the opposition and we need time to organise and reorganise and go back to the people with plausible real solutions to their problems.
“If we don’t get these solutions, then what do we have?
“We need to all come together and appeal to all of us, all PDP lovers and members to really look at the issues objectively so that we have a platform that we can call a party, which can win elections.
“Not a fragmented party,” he said.
Source: Legit.ng
