Police step in as ADC leadership crisis turns violent in Borno

By Ndahi Marama, Maiduguri

The leadership crisis rocking the African Democratic Congress (ADC) in Borno State deepened on Friday as the Police Commissioner, Nasir Abdulmajid, invited key figures including Hon. Ali Wurge, Chairman of the coalition ADC in the state, and embattled state party chairman, Alhaji Umara Bolori.

Sources revealed that Hon. Wurge, who had just addressed journalists at the ADC secretariat along Galadima Junction/Abbaganaram Road in Maiduguri, was taken aback when armed policemen surrounded the office and informed him that his presence, along with other committee members, was required at the Borno State Police Command.

Background

The party has been engulfed in internal strife following the inauguration of an interim management committee set up by the national secretariat to oversee affairs pending the election of substantive executive council members.

Violence erupted during the committee’s inauguration in Maiduguri last Monday when Bolori openly rejected the committee’s legitimacy. He and his supporters staged a protest against the composition, insisting he would not recognize the interim leadership under Hon. Ali Bukar Wurge.

The protest quickly turned violent, leaving about eleven party members and security agents injured.

Wurge’s Reaction

Speaking to journalists before his police invitation, Wurge described the incident not as a protest but as “orchestrated violence against democratic order.”

He accused thugs loyal to a “political despot” of storming the event with “barbaric savagery,” destroying eight vehicles belonging to party members and vandalizing a police vehicle. “This was an assault on the very symbol of state authority,” he fumed.

Wurge commiserated with the injured, saying: “Your sacrifice will never be forgotten. Your wounds are our wounds.”

He insisted that the interim committee’s legitimacy was “ironclad,” established in line with the ADC constitution and ratified by the party’s national working committee.

Legal Threats and Reconciliation Appeal

Wurge expressed shock at Bolori’s threat to take legal action against the committee, dismissing it as “null and void,” since Bolori, as state chairman, was automatically a member of the interim committee.

He appealed for unity, urging members to set aside personal interests: “My doors remain open towards rebuilding and repositioning the party as a formidable opposition ahead of the 2027 general elections.”

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