Makarfi's PDP faction drags BSIEC to court

The ex-Governor Ahmed Makarfi-led Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Benue State has dragged the Benue State Independent Electoral Commission (BSIEC) before a Federal High Court sitting in Makurdi over alleged rejection of its candidates list for the expected June 3, local government elections in the state.

In the suit filed at the weekend by its team of lawyers, the Makarafi-PDP has urged the court to stop BSIEC from holding the elections into the 23 local government councils of the state pending when the commission accepts their own candidates list for the polls.

The faction also prayed the court to compel the commission to recognised their State Chairman, Sir John Ngbede and his executive as the authentic PDP in the state and to forthwith stop all forms of recognition of the Alhaji Ali Modu Sherriff's group, Mr. Dan Ale as State Chairman of the party.

State Publicity Secretary of the Makarafi-led PDP, Bemgba Iortyom, told our correspondent yesterday in Makurdi that the action followed the release of unopposed list of All Progressives Congress (APC) candidates to solely participate in the election. 

Iortyom said that the commission formally intimated his party through writing last week that the rejection of their (Makarafi) list was occasioned by the directive it received from the PDP's national secretariat, adding that the chairman of BSIEC, Dr. John Tor Tsuwa, had insisted that the list which contained the candidates' names was not signed by the Chairman of the party, Sheriff and so the commission could not identified with it.

A check in Makurdi on the released list by BSIEC showed that APC fielded candidates for all the available positions in all the councils for the polls while two others of Labour Party (LP) and Social Democratic Party (SDP) had candidates in only between two and four local governments respectively, leaving out both factions of the PDP completely out of the game. 

Contacted, the BSIEC Information officer, Mr. Augustine Odiba, said the commission at the time of sending this report was yet to be served any court summons and that its chairman would speak about the matter raised by the PDP this week.