From Usman Abubakar, in Maiduguri
The African Democratic Congress (ADC) in Borno State is hit by Intra-party party crisis over leadership of the interim management committee set up by the party’s national secretariat to oversee its affairs before the election of substantive executive council members.
Violence erupted at the inauguration of the interim committee at a destination in Maiduguri metropolis last Monday, when the state chairman of the party, Alhaji Kaka Umara Bolori, denounced the committee.
He reportedly,, along with his followers, protested against the composition of the committee, saying that he would not legitimize the interim committee led by Alhaji Ali Bukar Wurge.
This protest turned violent, with about eleven party men and security agents sustaining wounds.
“This was not protest; it was orchestrated violence against democratic order,” the Borno State chairman of the interim national committee, Alhaji Ali Wurge, fumed while denouncing the reported Bolori-led violence at a news conference in Maiduguri, Friday, January 16.
He recalled that thugs allegedly carrying out the orders of an alleged political despot “descended upon a legitimate party function with barbaric savagery, destroying eight vehicles belonging to our members and vandalizing a police vehicle, an assault on the very symbol of state authority.”
Wurge commiserated with the wounded party men and policemen, stating, “Your sacrifice will never be forgotten. Your wounds are our wounds.”
He described the committee’s legitimacy as ironclad established in full conformity with the ADC constitution and election guidelines, ratified by what he described as the supreme authority of the party’s national working committee. END
