Administrative staff of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will today resist the attempt by the Ali Modu-Sheriff faction of the party to wrest their loyalty from the grip of the National Caretaker Committee, Independent can authoritatively reveal.

The Ali Modu-Sheriff faction had after the last Tuesday protest by workers, called a meeting for today (Monday) with the workers, on the platform of being the recognised national leadership of the party.

Preparatory to today’s scheduled meeting, the Senator Ali Modu-Sheriff faction had called a meeting with the leadership of the PDP Staff Welfare Forum for last Saturday ahead of a general meeting with the entire staff, but the meeting was shunned by majority of the workers’ leadership under flimsy excuses.

But this paper gathered that the meeting was shunned as the final decision was yet to be taken by the workers on what to do with the invitation extended to them by the Modu-Sheriff faction.

However, having taken a solid stand, today’s meeting, scheduled to hold at 10:00 am at his factional temporary PDP secretariat at 21, Gana Street, Maitama will also be boycotted by the staff.

It was learnt that the boycott is to drive home their displeasure over the role the faction has been playing in the crisis rocking the opposition party.

Different sources within the ranks of the party staff spoke with Independent yesterday under anonymity and confirmed the plans.

One of the PDP staff said they are aware of the “gimmicks” of the Modu-Sheriff camp and are not ready to be used by him to further elongate the crisis in the party.

A senior staff in a chat, told this newspaper in confidence also that the staff who had all these while stayed off the struggle for power between Modu-Sheriff and the Ahmed Makarfi led caretaker committee of the party, have now realised that the former Borno State Governor and his followers within the party don’t really mean well for the opposition party.

According to the staff, the Modu-Sheriff camp has shown that it’s only interested in killing the party and not allow it function as the opposition party since it lost power in 2015, insisting that the actions and inactions of the renegade group has almost pushed PDP to the grave.

“We didn’t want to take side in the struggle for power by the two factions, but being adults, we can see clearly that there is a sinister motive by the Ali Modu-Sheriff led group following all the antics they have been playing in the course of the various court cases meant to settle the leadership crisis.

“We also noticed that since the Wadata Plaza National Secretariat of our party was shut down by police following the struggle for its control by his group and the caretaker committee, we have it on good authority that every efforts made by the caretaker committee to get the place opened were frustrated by the Senator Ali Modu-Sheriff group.

“Since June last year, we have been hanging around, loitering under trees around the secretariat, waiting for it to be opened so we can continue our work, but here we are, no support from the man who claim to be the authentic chairman of the party, whereas, the caretaker committee has shown cause to our plight.

“Aside from our personal interest as staff of the party, we are also aware with empirical facts, that since the crisis began, the camp of Senator Ali Modu-Sheriff has not played the role of opposition to the APC by any means.

“It’s regrettable that the faction of the Ali Modu-Sheriff has not issued any statement on behalf of the PDP as an opposition party to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), pretending that all APC have been doing in government are all welcomed.

“But everyone can see on television and in the newspapers that the caretaker committee has taken the gauntlet and have tried to give APC a run for its money in consonance with the mandate of an opposition party which PDP currently is.

“The caretaker committee have severally accused the camp of Senator Modu-Sheriff of being a mole for the APC in our party, while one does not want to believe so, their actions are portraying them as such.

“Calling us to a meeting after we had protested openly asking the police to hand over our secretariat to us is just a gimmick. Where have they been all these days? Anyone who wishes to exercise control over the staff and use us as a legitimacy platform should first and foremost, get the secretariat opened for us, and let us resume our normal duty.

“We are really worried about the closure of the secretariat because we are aware that not a single pronouncements was made in any court ordering the closure of the secretariat, but somebody who is interested in killing the party finally is preventing the secretariat from being opened” the top staff said.

However, another source disclosed to this newspaper that the staff after rigorous meeting decided to tread on the path of caution as regards relating with Modu-Sheriff camp because he has not shown he cares for the staff welfare in anyway.

According to the staff who craved anonymity, majority of them had become apprehensive when it was said last year that Modu-Sheriff would be given a new mandate of four years at the scuttled May convention in Port-Harcourt because his policies were clearly anti-welfare.

The source disclosed that Modu-Sheriff had taken a staff audit while in power and had made moves at cutting down the staff strength as well as the salaries of those to be retained, a development that has created a gulf between his leadership and the staff.

All through the crisis period, it was also gathered that the Makarfi committee has been paying the salaries of the staff while the Ali Modu-Sheriff faction has not paid them a single naira as salary.

“It is funny how people forget so soon how badly they had behaved. This is the same man who wanted to throw majority of us into unemployment market, while he was firmly in power.

“I hope you will believe me if I tell you that he said a salary of N100,000 (one hundred thousand naira) was too much for a level 13 officer in the PDP secretariat? That’s the kind of man who is now trying to use same set of staff to secure credibility as party leader. We hope God will use the courts to settle all matters concerning the party soon.

“We have also been receiving our salaries from the caretaker committee since last year, whereas the man who claim to be our party chairman has not paid a single month salary to anyone since last year. Common sense demands that we should know who the real party leaders are” the staff said.

However, there are indications that a splinter group within the staff welfare forum led by one of the forum officers might honour the meeting.

One of the Departmental Directors in the PDP told this newspaper yesterday that a counter meeting has been called for 10:am today (same time with the Modu-Sheriff faction meeting) by the staff to hold at the temporary office being run by the Makarfi committee, where issues concerning their welfare will be discussed.

But he disclosed that they are aware that some promises have been made to some of the staff and they are likely to “betray” their colleagues by attending the meeting called by the Modu-Sheriff faction, led by the unnamed PDP staff welfare Forum executive member.

 He, however, confirmed that anyone who attend the meeting with the Modu-Sheriff faction “will regret doing so”.