The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Ali Modu Sheriff has threatened to sack staff of the opposition party who fail to resume at the national secretariat.
This followed the refusal of the staff to resume at their duty post, a week after the party’s secretariat in Abuja was reopened.
In a daring move, the staff on Monday gave three conditions upon which they will return to the party secretariat and continue their work including the restoration of all former NWC members to office, political solution for the resolution of the crisis and the judgement of the Supreme Court on the leadership crisis rocking the party.
But in a statement on Tuesday, the Sheriff group threatened that disciplinary measures will be taken against staff who fail to resume.
The statement signed by the Acting National Publicity Secretary, Bernard Mikko, did not however, give a deadline for their resumption.
The statement condemn the staff for taking sides with the Ahmed Makarfi-led National Caretaker Committee, describing it as a ‘dissident group’ already ‘proscribed by law’. Recall that the Appeal Court in Port Harcourt had recently recognised Sheriff as the authentic national chairman of the party.
“All staff of the PDP National Secretary that have not resumed duties should immediately go back to work. This notice serves as another opportunity for the staff of the National Secretariat to take advantage of the magnanimity of the leadership of the National Chairman, Ali Modu Sheriff and resume duties in line with the press statement issued after the meeting of the National Working Committee of Wednesday March 1, 2017 and signed by the National Secretary, Wale Adewale.
“Failure to heed the call by the National Secretary will attract disciplinary procedures as the staff is deemed to be conversant with their terms and conditions of employment, particularly the PDP Establishment Manual that stipulates that they remain apolitical.
“However, recent events and pronouncements of some members of staff under the guise of PDP Welfare Association, have shown that they have breached their terms of employment and conditions of service and now engaging in the selection, determination and emergence of their bosses who are political leaders at the Wadata Plaza. This is gross abuse of office and totally unacceptable.
“The belligerent stand and the series of communiques issued by some members of staff indicates clearly that they have positioned themselves in the center of political conflagrations involving their bosses against their terms and conditions of employment”, the statement reads in part.
