Kaduna PDP Congress: Aspirant condemns ‘widespread rigging, manipulation ‘

By Folorunsho Alagbede

A Chairmanship Aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kaduna State, Danjuma Sarki, has condemned the recent state congress election, citing widespread manipulation and rigging.
A former Commissioner of Water Resources, Edward Masha, was declared the new Chairman of the state PDP chapter at the state congress held during the weekend.
Masha polled 2,123 votes to defeat Sarki who secured 250 votes.
However, addressing journalists at a press conference held at the Nigeria Union of Journalists Secretariat yesterday, Sarki alleged that delegates were coerced into voting for a particular candidate, contravening the party’s constitution and guidelines.
“The election was a sham, a rape of democracy. Delegates’ tags had preferred candidates’ names written on them, and they were threatened and forced to swear allegiance,” Sarki claimed.
He described the venue as rowdy and disorderly, allowing unauthorised individuals to infiltrate and manipulate the process.
Sarki emphasised that he was not defeated in a free and fair election but was rigged out.
“I didn’t lose, I was cheated. The PDP in Kaduna needs a credible leader to challenge the APC, but yesterday’s election failed to deliver that,” he added.
The aspirant expressed disappointment that the party, despite being in opposition for a decade, failed to conduct a transparent election at the just conducted state congress.
The Kaduna PDP has faced internal conflicts and controversy surrounding its congresses. The party’s national leadership has been urged to intervene and ensure fairness.
Sarki thanked his supporters, campaign team and party leaders who stood by him despite intimidation.
According to him, the PDP’s Kaduna chapter has faced significant challenges, including its defeat in the last gubernatorial election, saying, “No doubt, we are all living witnesses to how PDP was rigged out during the last gubernatorial election in Kaduna State.”
“I look at the past, the present and the future of where do our hope lies as women, and where do we want to be. This thinking had brought me to where I am today and am glad about that. I wrote the book from my own perspective, and I hope it will give people a cause to think about women and embrace them. I also hope the book will promote literacy. We are going to be donating books around the country from the fund we will raise from the launch of this book so that more people can know what gender is all about, we assume that many people do not know about it.”
According to Ms Onyeri, she will also be creating endowment funds for gender studies in the universities as they are the two key projects to be achieved after the book launch.
A gender advocate and public speaker, Moji Makanjuola, commended the author of the book, adding that she waged war against cancer, and a speaker for person’s with cancer.
According to her, women must hold each other’s hand, and stop impoverishing themselves, but must work towards developing themselves.