By Peter Duru
MAKURDI — The scheduled Tuesday ward congresses of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Benue State failed to hold in most parts of the state due mainly to lack of materials, crowd violence and alleged imposition of candidates without recourse to laid down procedures and congress guidelines.

In all the three senatorial districts of the state different factions of the party struggled with one another to hijack the list of party members in order to undo the other.

Vanguard gathered that at Binev in Buruku Local Government Area of the state, the Speaker of the Benue State House of Assembly, Mr. Terseer Tsumba, was chased by angry youths in his council ward who threatened to manhandle him for attempting to impose an unpopular candidate on party members.

Same is the story in Katsina-Ala Local Government township where the council chairman, Mr. Augustine Avaan, was viciously attacked and beaten up by irate youths who accused him of conniving with party officials to divert materials meant for the congresses in the area.

Feelers from the other 21 local government areas of the state painted the same picture of despair and disappointment by members of the party who lamented the complete disregard for the congress guidelines and hijack of materials by contending camps in the state.

Speaking to Vanguard on grounds of anonymity in Otukpo, PDP chairman in one of the wards who escaped being lynched by angry party faithfuls disclosed that the names of some special persons were penciled down as delegates which resulted in the angry protests by the youths and party members who demanded explanations.

He added, “I have no hand in what happened, I did not pick the candidates I only acted to instructions”.

Same was the situation in virtually all the council wards across the 23 local government areas of the state where protests and controversies have continue to trial the entire exercise.

Vanguard gathered that some aggrieved members of the party have already filed their protests to the party leadership in the state while the national secretariat has also been briefed on what they described as sacrilege in Benue State.

According to James Angerr, “This is a rape on democracy and we will not allow it. How can we queue up in the sun to votes our delegates only to disperse without voting yet names of presumed delegates have already been compiled; whoever is responsible for this must be called to order if they want the PDP to continue to flourish in Benue State”

Meanwhile all calls put to the State PDP chairman to elicit his reaction were snub as he refused to pick the calls nor respond to text messages sent to him.