Makarfi’s meeting with me not a face-saving one – Sheriff

The two factional National Chairmen of the Peoples Democratic Party, Senators Ali Modu Sheriff and Ahmed Makarfi, again met on Tuesday in the bid to settle the crisis in the party.
Makarfi visited Sheriff along with the spokesman of the faction, Prince Dayo Adeyeye.
However, in a statement late on Tuesday, the Sheriff faction disowned a Facebook post saying the visit by Makarfi and Adeyeye was a face-saving one.
A statement by Sheriff’s spokesman, Inuwa Bwala, on the development, reads: “The attention of Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, National Chairman of the PDP, has been drawn to some posts earlier today on Facebook, which tended to portray a meeting he held earlier in the day with Distinguished Senator Ahmed Makarfi, Caretaker Committee Chairman of the PDP and Prince Dayo Adeyeye in bad light.
“I have the authority of Senator Ali Modu Sheriff to state for the avoidance of doubt that any statement credited to any person or persons on behalf of National Chairman of the PDP, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, except as authorized  by Mr Inuwa Bwala, his official spokesman, is not by any means a reflection of the official position of the Chairman.
“To this end, I wish to disown a recent post insinuating that Senator Makarfi’s visit to Senator Ali Modu Sheriff on Tuesday, was in desperation and a face saving move by the distinguished Senator.
“We state that the meeting between Senators Ali Modu Sheriff and Ahmed Makarfi today was part of ongoing consultations on the way out of the crisis that bedevilled the PDP and not a face saving move by any one of them as is being mischievously insinuated.
“This clarification became necessary to correct certain erroneous notions created by some posts in the social media to the effect that a consultative meeting between the two leaders was reported as a face saving move by the Makarfi group.
“Both Senators Ali Modu Sheriff and Ahmed Makarfi hold the peace initiatives they jointly signed seriously, and will not encourage unauthorized remarks, including posts in the media that will tend to undermine the peace process.
“We regard the post on Facebook as careless and irresponsible taking into account the fact that the PDP has crossed the Rubicon in it’s quest for peace.
“While apologizing to Senator Makarfi on behalf of the chairman for the embarrassment the said post may have caused him, Senator Sheriff wishes to state that he did not authorize anybody, including the author of that post to cast aspersions on the person of the distinguished Senator Makarfi or any party stalwart for that matter.”