Details of how the national Chairman of the Caretakercommittee of the Peoples Democratic Party, Senator AhmedMakarfi and the former chairman of the party, Ali ModuSheriff agreed to go to the negotiating table have emerged.Saturday Vanguard gathered that following the crisis thatengulfed the party, the former head of state, General IbrahimBabangida summoned the two leaders and directed them to
resolve their differences in the interest of the party and the North.

According to a source familiar with the process that led tothe meeting of the two leaders, a prominent member of theparty from the South Eastern part of the country reportedlymet with the former president in Minna and urged him tointervene in the lingering crisis in the party for the sake ofthe country and especially the northern part of the countrywhere two of the contenders to the chairmanship position are from.

It was gathered that the politician from one of the south eastern states who was a former senator met with former President Babangida and requested him to intervene in the crisis since both Makarfi and Sheriff respect him a lot.President Babangida reportedly summoned Sheriff and Makarfi and urged them to find a peaceful way of resolving the leadership crisis in the party (in the interest of the country to which they both agreed.

After their meetings with Babangida, Senator Makarfi and Sheriff agreed to meet and find a common ground to resolving the leadership crisis.

A member of the caretaker committee of the party confirmed the intervention of president Babangida, saying that his intervention was responsible for the progress we have achieved so far because before then, Sheriff and his group were recalcitrant.

It was further gathered that it was after the intervention of former president Babangida that senators Sheriff and Makarfi met and issued a joint statement pledging their willingness to resolve the crisis once and for all.