GROUP EXONERATES MINISTER FROM BENUE PDP WARD CONGRESSES CRISIS

By NBF News

By  PETER DURU
MAKURDI-A group under the aegis of Opiatoha K' Okpokwu has denied reports that  suspected armed thugs with links to the Minister of Interior, Comrade Abba Moro, invaded Okpokwu local government to disrupt the last PDP ward congresses in the area.

The group also condemned what it described as the calculated attempt to malign the person of the Minister through deliberate falsehood in order to secure cheap political point.

In a statement signed by the President of Opiatoha, Mr. Maurice Anawo and other officials of the association, they maintained that contrary to the allegations, it was the Minister who stood his ground to ensure that both old and new members of the PDP were allowed to exercise their franchise in the congress.

The group regretted that the modest effort of the Minister to ensure that all card carrying members of the PDP exercised their franchise in line with the party's guideline did not go down well with a faction that was determined to compromise the entire process to their own advantage.

According to them, 'The allegation is a rigorous but a futile attempt to tarnish the reputation of  Mr  Moro, by portraying him as a violent and unpopular politician.

'The sponsors were so bent on achieving this objective to the extent that they resorted to blatant lies. We do not hold brief for the Minister, but his popularity as a grass roots politician is well known across the length and breadth of Benue State and beyond.'

They however, vowed to ensure that the principles of participatory democracy and governance was strictly observed across the Idoma kingdom advising that all those averse to these principles to change their ways in the interest of the nation's democracy.