The leadership crisis in the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, continues to fester with the submission of the names of two different candidates by the two factions of the party for the forthcoming Ondo State Governorship election.

The Party had broken into two camps, one headed by the Chairman of the National Caretaker Committee, Ahmed Makarfi, and the other led by Ali Modu-Sheriff.

It was gathered that Makarfi’s camp had submitted the name of Eyitayo Jegede, SAN, to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, as candidate of the PDP in the election while the Sheriff’s faction presented the name of Jimoh Ibrahim as its own candidate.

The Modu-Sheriff faction said its actions were being guided by two court rulings asking INEC to recognize Modu-Sheriff as the authentic National Chairman of the PDP.

Bernard Mikko, spokesman for the faction, confirmed the development, saying that his faction was confident that its candidate would emerge victorious in the polls.

He added that Sheriff, who he described as a “man who has the love of the party at heart,” would eventually be declared by the courts as the authentic national chairman of the party.

“We have a formidable candidate in Jimoh Ibrahim and we have forwarded his name to INEC as the party’s candidate,” Mikko said.

“We believe he will defeat any other candidate based on the clean process that threw him up and his antecedents in the state.

“He had contested before and was and still, well received by the electorate. He’s our candidate for the election.”

However, a member of the Makarfi-led Caretaker Committee, Dayo Adeyeye, criticized the Modu-Sheriff faction for submitting another candidate’s name to INEC on the same PDP platform.

He said the action of the group would eventually amount to nothing the way it did in the case of the Edo governorship election.

Adeyeye noted that the purported primary held by the Modu-Sheriff faction which produced Ibrahim, was held in Ibadan, Oyo State and was not monitored by INEC as required by the electoral act.

He said, “If they do that (submit Ibrahim’s name), it will amount to nothing.

“This is because, we have court judgments in our favour and moreover, INEC did not monitor their own primary.

“Let them continue with the entertainment. Nigerians are enjoying their drama.”

Meanwhile, Nick Dazang, INEC’s Deputy Director on Voter Education and Publicity, confirmed that the commission had received the name of the candidate of the Makarfi group.

He said, “Yes, one of them, the Makarfi group had submitted the name of its candidate. I’m not sure if the Sheriff faction has done the same thing either today (Thursday) or yesterday (Wednesday).

“At the end of the day, the commission will sit down to look at the law and take a position on who is the right candidate and who is not.”

The Ondo State Governorship election has been scheduled to hold in November this year.