On one hand is Senator Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi, a former Governor of Kaduna State.
On the other, is Senator Ali Modu Sheriff former Governor of Borno State.
Makarfi was elected governor of Kaduna State in 1999 and won a second four-year term in 2003.
In April 2007 he was elected Senator in the Nigerian Senate representing Kaduna North Senatorial District (which includes Makarfi, Kudan, Sabon-Gari, Zaria, Ikara, Soba, Lere and Kubau Local Government Areas).
In the April 2011 elections, Makarfi secured a reelection on the PDP platform, Sheriff on his part was elected as a senator from Borno during the Third Nigerian Republic under the banner of NRC,
He became Borno State’s first governor to serve two consecutive terms (2003–2011) and held two elected offices as a member of All Nigeria People’s Party before later joining the All Progressives Congress as a founding member.
In 2014, Sheriff switched affiliation to the People’s Democratic Party and acted as the National Working Committee chair from 16 February 2016.
Sheriff’s leadership whipped up controversies, with some members of the party faulting the decision to make him the chairman.
Consequently the National Convention of the party removed and replaced him with Makarfi which ignited the hostility.
The arena shifted from the venue of the convention in Port Harcourt to the national Secretariat of the PDP in the Federal Capital Territory and finally in the court rooms.
The prize is the national leadership of the PDP which has lost power barely a year ago after enjoying it for a little more than one and a half decades.
The thrills and frills twisted around personality traits; Whereas Sheriff opted for the brigandage approach, Makarfi on his part chose the path of Diplomatic persuasion.
All through the fight he played the lame duck even as he delivered deadly but gentle punches right below Sheriff’s belt while waiting for a chance to send in a finisher.
Sheriff played to the gallery, threw wild punches all of which widely missed the mark.
At a point, he stormed and took over the national Secretariat in a gangster fashion.
But Makarfi sustained his diplomatic approach and maintained that he will continue to plead with Sheriff for a dialogue as unity remains an important tool for the party.
Sheriff characteristically refused to budge even after the final whistle on Wednesday when an FCT High Court presided over by Justice Valentine Ashi annulled the PDP 2014 Constitution Amendment through which he assumed office.
Justice Valantine Ashi, declared as “unconstitutional, null and void”, the purported amendment of Article 47 Rule 6 of PDP Constitution, 2012, at a special National Convention the party held on Wednesday and Thursday, December 10 and 11, 2014.
It voided the said amendment on the basis that there was no compliance with mandatory provisions of Article 66 (2) and (3) of the PDP constitution.
The court emphatically held that the purported amendments introduced to the constitution on the aforesaid dates, are were set-aside and all persons, individuals, servants or agents of PDP parading themselves as national officers of the PDP pursuant to the purported amendment were restrained from further parading themselves in these capacities.
Makarfi typically expressed satisfaction with with the ruling and advised Sheriff to retrace his steps and join hands with others to move the party forward.
But the Sheriff camp said that the court did not sack him and that the judgment was being misinterpreted.
Written by Abdul-azeez Suleiman.
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