By Teddy Nwanunobi
Abuja (Sundiata Post) — Bayelsa State governor and chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Reconciliation Committee, Henry Seriake Dickson, on Tuesday, denied a News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) report, which claimed that Dickson demanded the resignation of Ahmed Makarfi as the factional Chairman of the Party.
Dickson, who distanced himself from the report, added that he had already written a formal complaint to the NAN management, which filed the misleading report.
According to a statement issued by his Special Adviser (Media Relations), Francis Agbo, when Dickson only argued that for PDP leaders must make sacrifices, if they truly desire to see the opposition Party bounce back.
He regretted that the misinterpretation of the NAN reporter has elicited the reaction of the factional publicity secretary, Dayo Adeyeye.
“Despite the blackmail and propaganda scripted to distract Governor Dickson, he and his committee remain committed to reconciling all intetests through dialogue because only a political solution woven around dialogue and sacrifices can engender true reconciliation.
“To set the records straight, Governor Seriake Dickson spoke with a select group of journalists last Saturday in Abuja on the PDP crisis, but he never asked Makarfi to step down. In the said interview, the Governor as a peace maker stated his committee’s role in the reconciliation process and argued that for PDP to bounce back, leaders must make sacrifices.
“He consequently appealed to PDP leaders including Senator Ali Modu Sheriff and Makarfi to make sacrifices for the revival of the party, stressing that the PDP is more than Sheriff and Makarfi and indeed any individual. This was what a NAN Reporter who was at the interaction misconstrued as stepping aside for which we have written to NAN management to complain. Curiously, only NAN misconstrued the Governor’s interview, all other media organisations in the interaction reported the Governor correctly,” the statement said.
According to him, efforts of the Committee has begun to yield dividends, as the National Chairman, Sheriff, has publicly written, on the request of the reconciliation committee to undertake that he would not contest election at the unity convention.
Sheriff, he said, has also indicated that he would not interfer in the selection of Committee membership, and has already written organs of the Party for nominations into the convention committees.
Dickson also stressed that Sheriff had said all party officials elected before the first botched Port Harcourt convention remain valid, while all members of the Party’s National Working Committee (NWC), whose tenures are still running, have agreed to resign to pave way for a unity convention.
