AFTER months of intrigues, the former National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and representative of Benue North East in the Senate, Barnabas Gemade, Thursday withdrew from the party’s senatorial primary election slated for Sunday. 

   There were also strong indications that Gemade might defect to the All Progressives Congress (APC) to realise his ambition of returning to the Senate in 2015.

   In a letter dated December 2, 2014, titled, “PDP primary elections for Senate 2015 withdrawal,” which was addressed to the party’s National Chairman, Adamu Mu’azu, Gemade complained bitterly about a lack of transparency and level play field in the conduct of the party’s primary election.

   He said he has realised that things have become so bad that no one could expect a level play field or even any democratic action in the party’s affairs. Gemade maintained that as a founding member of the PDP in 1998 and indeed the leader of the Conveners in Benue State, he was pained by the undemocratic developments in the party.

   According to him, there is no room for an honest and law-abiding member of PDP to have a fair chance in any contest in the forthcoming primary elections, as the party would protect anyone capable of manipulating the process through any process.

   “My opponent in the primary elections was allowed to write out the entire list of delegates for the election in his house, including the delegates from my ward and local council, and has boasted on public media how he would use such list to ‘disgrace a party elder,” the letter read in part.

   A source close to Gemade, however, disclosed that from the look of things, he might join force with Senate Minority Leader, George Akume, to give APC victory in Benue State. According to the source, “Gemade is certainly not a pushover in Benue politics and cannot be toyed with.”

http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/news/national-news/189171-gemade-quits-pdp-senate-primaries-may-join-apc