Borno PDP needs serious intervention – Badeiri

A former secretary of the PDP and now chairmanship contender of the party in Borno State, Usman Mahdi Badeiri, said yesterday that the party needs to be saved from the clutches of some powerful forces that want to hijack it for selfish reasons.

He stated this in the wake of the swearing-in of the party’s contentious chairman, Zanna Gaddama and local government chairmen of the party even when elections were not held in Bayo and Shani local government areas of the state.

Badeiri and some chieftains of the PDP had since gone to court where they were challenging the processes that led to the declaration of Gaddama as state chairman of the party by the Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led caretaker committee.

Hundreds of PDP members from Borno came to the national headquarters of the PDP in Abuja, last week where they lodged complaints on alleged illegalities perpetrated by a committee mandated to carry out elections from ward to state level in the state.

The National Organising Secretary of the party, Senator Abdul Ningi, who addressed the protesters, promised that their grievances would be addressed.

But Badeiri said the national leadership of the party had done nothing so far, including the latest illegal conduct of election for Bayo and Shani; as well as the inauguration of the Borno leadership of the party in faraway Gombe State.

“I hereby call on our respected party delegates, party executives, supporters and stakeholders to remain calm and be law abiding citizens. We are bona-fide members of PDP; we have much respect for our political party.

“We have legally and constitutionally approached the High Court for redress. I want to re-assure our delegates, supporters and party stakeholders that our mandate will never be stolen, we will fight legally to reclaim our mandate.

“The sleepless nights and the struggles of our delegates and supporters will never be in vain.

“We are ever ready to join whoever emerged as the winner under a free and fair contest for the interest of our party; but anything short of this is unacceptable by us,” he cautioned.