By Samuel Ogidan
Abuja
The crisis over the just concluded Adamawa state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) House of Assembly primaries worsened yesterday with the chairman of the election committee urging the national leadership of the party to dismiss the result.
In a four-page petition addressed to the party’s National Chairman, Alhaji Ahmed Adamu Mu’azu, and copied the National Organising Secretary, Abubakar Mustapha, the committee chairman, Ambassador Timothy Ihemadu, explained that the result was not authentic.
He narrated that members of the committee were, upon arrival in Yola to conduct the election, abducted and detained in the Government House, just as the election materials were seized from them by agents of the state government.
“We were not allowed to play any role in the so-called election that followed,” he said.
“We were constantly threatened, abused, harassed and even physically molested by thugs, the suspended PDP state chairman, suspended PDP state secretary, the PDP state organising secretary as well as other agents of the governor.”
“All the results, having been collated by the governor’s agents, we were ordered to sign the result sheets,” he said.
He further alleged that they were escorted to the airport by security agents and officials of the government, adding, “We boarded a chartered plane, escorted by security agents and some government officials to Abuja.”
Ihemadu, in the petition he jointly signed with the secretary of the committee, Mrs. Victoria Nyam-Isha, dissociated the committee from the election and the entire results.
“We hereby dissociate ourselves from the state assembly election that purportedly took place in Adamawa state and disown the entire results purportedly produced by that exercise and pray the party to take note or do same.”
The committee added: “The so called election was conducted in an aspirant’s premises using a delegate list not known to the national secretariat of our party and supervised by a Chairman and Secretary under suspension by the party. This illegality should also be noted and addressed.
“The election committee was completely isolated from the so-called process and the materials used were obtained under duress and by threats to our lives and safety from thugs and high government officials alike.”
Ihemadu requested for “protection from agents of the state government as some of them have followed us to Abuja on the instruction of the governor or his officials.”
But the Organising Secretary of the PDP in Adamawa state, Alhaji Abdullahi Adamu, maintained that the result submitted to the party’s national leadership by the committee was authentic.
Addressing journalists in Abuja, Adamu said: “It is true that some people are trying to doctor the result of the election of the House of Assembly primaries of Adamawa state and thank God the result sheet they came with to the party national secretariat indicating that they have conducted the election is not authentic.
“We escorted the result to the secretariat to avoid any form of manipulation and the collating officers have certified that the result we came in with is authentic.
“They have accepted the result and, right now, we are waiting for the photocopy of the report because we are taking it back to the people of Adamawa so that they will be sure of what we did.”