By ARMSTRONG ALLAHMAGANI, Bauchi –
The Director General, People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Campaign Council in Bauchi State, Farouk Mustapha, has said that one person was killed during a campaign rally of the gubernatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Sadique Abubakar, at Duguri town, in Alkaleri Local Government Area, the hometown of the Governor Bala Mohammed.
He said that 15 others sustained varying degrees of injuries from gunshots and machete attacks in violence that broke out on Wednesday evening.
NATIONAL ACCORD reports that the incident happened at about 6.00pm, barely five hours after seven of the nine gubernatorial candidates in Bauchi State met at the State Police Headquarters and signed a peace accord ahead of the governorship and State Assembly elections. But the gubernatorial candidate of the APC was absent but was represented by his running mate at the event.
Mustapha told journalists during a press conference held at the Media Unit, Government House, Bauchi at about 11.50pm on Wednesday, that the APC and its candidate were responsible for the attack just as he alleged that Abubakar, the immediate past Chief of Air Staff, led thugs belonging to his camp and party to unleash terror on the governor’s kinsmen and also destroyed billboards of the PDP.
He wondered why the APC gubernatorial candidate shunned the signing of the peace accord but went to the hometown of the governor for a campaign, stressing that this showed he had no respect for the people he intends to govern.
He said: “Today (Wednesday) is one of the saddest days in the political history of Bauchi State. All gubernatorial candidates of various political parties in the state were at the State Police Headquarters with all the security agencies to sign a peace accord which has been the practice in every election season. However, the candidate of the APC was conspicuously absent with only his deputy in attendance, showing no respect for the peace and harmony to reign in Bauchi State.
“To our dismay, while the candidates were signing the peace accord, Air Marshal Sadique Baba Abubakar, took a campaign tour to Duguri town, the hometown of His Excellency, Senator Bala Mohammed, who doubles as the sitting governor and the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the forthcoming election.
“Shockingly, the candidate moved to Duguri with thousands of thugs, conventional and non-conventional, who were well armed to the brim. As usual by his antecedents, looking at what happened during his last campaigns in Akuyam in Misau Local Government Area and also in Toro Local Government Area of Bauchi State, where they shot to death about three people with no any kind of investigation or bringing the perpetrators to book.
“His gang leaders who led today’s thuggery, unleashed terror, intimidation on the people of Duguri town. They were chanting abuses and breaking all PDP billboards carrying His Excellency’s pictures, buses and even Keke NAPEP and office of the PDP were all burnt down.
“This barbaric act was resisted by the people of Duguri and even the armed security men open fire on the unarmed and innocent people of Duguri. They left several people injured and killed one Mallam Mai Ungwan Shata through a gunshot and also macheted others, about 15 of them, who sustained different degrees of injuries, and they are right now at the Teaching Hospital here in Bauchi.”
The DG called on all their supporters to restrain from reprisals as the Council is doing everything legal to bring the perpetrators of “this barbaric” act to justice even as he called on the Police and the State Security Service to “arrest and investigate and prosecute the perpetrators and their supporters or the sponsors of these heinous acts.
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In a reaction, the Director Media and Publicity of the Campaign Council, Salisu Barau, also accused the PDP of hiring its thugs to attack them, saying that the thugs opened fire on the campaign team of the APC gubernatorial candidate.
The release was entitled: “Thugs open fire on Air Marshal Sadique’s convoy in Gov. Bala’s village.”
He said: “Suspected hired thugs, using dane guns, opened fire on the convoy of the Bauchi state gubernatorial candidate of APC, Air Marshal Sadique Baba Abubukar, in Duguri the birthplace of the incumbent Bauchi state, Sen. Bala Mohammed.
“According to eyewitnesses, sounds of sporadic shootings were heard around the premises where campaign lecture was being held, which made the security operatives at the venue to rush to the scene of the shootings where, in an attempt to disarm the thugs and retrieve the guns from them, three people were shot: one Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps; one from a vigilance group and one from the hunters union.
“However, the NSCDC operatives succeeded in recovering two dane guns from the thugs while others escaped with their own guns.
The victims who sustained gunshot injuries are currently receiving medical attention at ATBU Teaching Hospital, Bauchi.
“It will be recalled that the same pattern of attacks, suspected to be sponsored, were carried out on Air Marshal Sadique’s convoy last month in Akuyam, the home village of the state chairman of PDP.”
Confirming the incident, the Bauchi Police spokesman, Ahmed Wakil, said immediately the Command received the distress call, the Commissioner of Police, Aminu Alhassan, directed the Area Commander Metro and the Divisional Police Officer, Mainamaji and that of Alkaleri to commence investigation in earnest.
Wakil, a Superintendent of Police, said that there was no record of any deaths, pointing out that only 14 people sustained various degrees of injuries.
He added that injured victims were rushed to the hospitals, where they have been treated and discharged.
He called on members of the public to be calm as the situation is under control however, vowing that the Command will not leave any stone unturned to deal with any recalcitrant that will want to disrupt the peace that Bauchi State is enjoying presently.
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