Timothy Olanrewaju, Maiduguri
A faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in Borno State, has rejected all the candidates produced by the other factions ahead of the 2019 elections.
The Usman Badeiri-led group at a press briefing, on Thursday, in Maiduguri, said those parading themselves as the party gubernatorial, national and state assemblies’ candidates would not be recognised, describing them as ‘fake’.
“We will like to state for the record that genuine members of the PDP in Borno State irrevocably reject these fake candidates,” Usman Badeiri, leader of the faction said.
The PDP in the state has been factionalised as two chieftains of the party, Usman Badeiri and Zanna Gadama, claimed the chairmanship position in the court.
The crisis in the party has also led to the conduct of two parallel primaries though the national leadership of the party and officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) attended only that of Zanna Gadama’s group that produced Mohammed Imam as PDP gubernatorial candidate.
But Badeiri maintained the Gadama’s primaries and outcome were illegal, adding that a previous court ruling has declared him the authentic chairman of the party.
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“As you are aware, we recently went to court challenging the validity of the candidates produced by Zanna Gadama.
“The Federal High Court Maiduguri has set aside our position in a judgement delivered on 12th December, 2018 in suit No FHC/MG/52/2018.
“What happened is a temporary setback as we have filed an appeal against that judgement,” he said.
He also dismissed the claim of sponsorship by the ruling All Progressive Party (APC) in the state. “The claim that we were being sponsored by APC is untrue, it is false and a blackmail,” he maintained.
Reacting, leader of the other faction, Alhaji Zanna Gadama told The Sun he remains the authentic chairman. He said the court has dismissed the Badeiri faction suit instituted against him and the gubernatorial candidate.
“They took us to Federal High Court for contempt because they claim we are still parading ourselves as the party leadership after the July 4th judgement which nulified our chairmanship election.
“But we have approached an appeal court in Jos and for us, the electoral law gives us opportunity to operate until the determination of our appeal,” he explained.
He said he remains the chairman until the appeal is decided otherwise at the Jos Appeal Court on January 17, 2019.