Reformed PDP, a faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Adamawa State has accused the state police command of partisanship against it.
The faction, in a petition to the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, alleged that the state Commissioner of Police, Audu Madaki, has been victimising its members and making it difficult for them to carry our their activities.
The faction said the police command is working in cohort with the mainstream PDP and its government to malign the faction.
The Reformed PDP (R-PDP), convened last year by a former governorship aspirant of the PDP, Dr Umar Ardo, said in an open letter to the IGP, “On behalf of the factional group of the PDP in Adamawa State, we write to express our dissatisfaction with the way Adamawa State Police Command under Police Commissioner Audu Madaki has been maltreating our members since we broke ranks with the PDP Chapter of the state last July.”
The letter, signed by Umar Ardo and made available to newsmen Saturday, said that on Thursday, April 9, the state police commissioner dispatched a team of mobile policemen to his hometown, Kojoli in Jada LGA and closed the factional office of the R-PDP, removed the hoisted flags, arrested the factional chairman, Mr. Phillip Buji, and brought and locked him up in Yola.
Umar Ardo added in the letter that on Friday when he sent a lawyer, Barr Husseini Guyuk, to bail Mr. Buji, the lawyer was himself promptly detained, and that his PA, Abdulsalam Adamu, who took food to them was as well detained by the police.
Taking the matter further back, Umar Ardo said the R-PDP first formally filed a written complaint of physical attack on the faction by thugs as members were holding a meeting in his house early in February, as a result of which windows of the house and screens of six cars were damaged and some members injured, but that the police did nothing about it.
The faction stated in the open letter, “On duly reporting the assault, police came and inspected the scene, took pictures and interviewed witnesses. We gave the police names, telephone numbers and addresses of some of the alleged perpetrators of the crime.
We were assured of justice, but to date, not a single person among those we named was even invited for questioning by the Adamawa State Police Command.”
He added that on another occasion, “when we failed to agree on our differences and we wanted to inaugurate our own factional leadership at the Lelewal Hotel in Yola on 20th February, 2020, the police command went out of its way to seal the venue that we duly paid for to hold a legitimate political ceremony.”
He urged the IGP to intervene by ensuring that the thugs who disrupted its meeting and caused injuries to members and damage to to their properties in February were prosecuted and members arrested by the police between Thursday and Friday released and apology tendered.
Speaking on the matter, the Police spokesman in Adamawa State, Suleiman Nguroje said the state command could not comment on a petition addressed to the IGP.
