Group Call for Gemade’s Suspension Over Sabotage, Anti Party Activity

From George Kajo, Makurdi

Group under the aegis of All Progressives Congress (APC) League of Voters (ALV) in Benue State, says they have reviewed the behaviour of a member of the party, Senator Barnabas Gemade and have come to the conclusion that he is rather a grave threat and disaster to the party and should be punished.

“We shall be inadvertently aiding mischief against our party if we choose to ignore and watch helplessly how a supposed major stakeholder of the party is indulging in devious antics to ground the party right from his polling unit, ward, local government, state and national level.”

In a statement signed by the Leader, Mr Orduen Aernan and Secretary, Comrade Been Adoor, a copy of which was made available to our correspondent in Makurdi, it noted that if there is anyone who has contributed nothing to building APC in Benue state but has unjustifiably profited enormously from it, is senator Gemade.

“Moreover, for those who may not know, Gemade joined the APC in 2015, on the day senatorial primaries of the party were ongoing. This means that he is an interloper who found his way into the party fold when nomination forms had been sold and closed. The implication is that the screening of party candidates had already been done and concluded, and the final list of successful candidates for election duly published before Gemade wriggled his way when the most bizarre happened.”

According to the group, Senator Gemade got a “waiver”, participated in the primaries, and was announced the winner.

“He would later be elected into the red chambers of the national assembly. But after 4 years, the people of Benue North-East senatorial district rated his performances as below average and denied him a ticket in 2019.”

“Gemade quickly abandoned our party and jumped over to the SDP. Probably in the same manner he had snatched a ticket in 2015. He got the ticket of the party for the 2019 general elections, but the people overwhelmingly rejected him through the ballot, ending up in a distant 3rd position. SDP under his leadership could not produce even a councilor during his reign as leader of the party in the state.”

The statement pointed out that when another election year was nigh, Gemade again abandoned SDP and returned to APC where he contested for the 2023 Governorship primaries but lost and all pleas from respected personalities in Tivland including custodians of the Tiv culture and religious leaders, Gemade remained stubborn, playing a spoiler.

“Not even advice of good conscience from respected people across the country, deterred him from dragging the party and the candidate through the judicial process up to the apex court, where he finally lost out.”

“Since then, Gemade has both openly and discreetly continued to indulge in one anti-party activity or the other in a manner that is characteristic of a bad loser.”

The statement added that senator Gemade in conspiracy with some of his key disciples, including Mr Benjamin Ashaver, Mr. Anta Igbaato and Mr. Katsina were working with other political parties, especially, the PDP, to frustrate APC at the just concluded presidential and national assembly polls in which his team ensured that APC was defeated in their wards and in some polling units in their domains.

APC League of Voters therefore, challenged senator Gemade to display the results of his Mbawar ward of Konshisha Konshisha local Government and those of his disciples mentioned above in their various wards for public scrutiny.

“Most painfully, we learned that Gemade was wrongly handed funds meant for candidates of the party in the last elections. These funds were eventually pilfered. We also got it on good authority that he has, since after the election, consistently evaded calls to account for the funds he administered without transparency.”

The group therefore, called for immediate disciplinary measures against Barnabas Gemade who is alleged to be bent on crippling the party in Benue state.

Efforts to cause Chief Gemade to react to the allegations proved abortive as he could not be reached at the time of filing this report.