PDP condemns, fingers APC for killing of supporter in Bauchi …APC blames PDP for attack 

From: Ruth Yarnap,

Bauchi

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Bauchi State chapter has condemned the attack on its members in  Duguri  town in Alkaleri  local  government leading to the killing of one person and injuring of 15 others allegedly by supporters of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Addressing journalists at the Government House on Wednesday evening, the Director-General, Bala Mohammed 2023 Campaign Council, Farouk Mustapha, said the incident was unfortunate and condemnable.

He described the attack as one too many, calling on the security agencies in the state to arrest the perpetrators of the dastardly act that led to the alleged death of one Mallam Maianguwa Shata of Duguri village and left many with various degrees of injuries.

According to him, the campaign train of the gubernatorial candidate of the APC, former Chief of Air Staff, Baba Sadique Abubakar was in Duguri Village, the hometown of the sitting Governor and candidate of the state’s ruling PDP, Governor Bala Mohammed.

It was learnt that as supporters of the Governor were chanting their support for him, a fracas broke out, leading to the death of one person, scores of injured members of the community and destruction of all PDP billboards and offices in the village.

He added, “in all our campaigns, we have never killed even a chicken. Our Governor has always been a proponent of peace and politics without bitterness. That was why he was in the vanguard of signing the peace accord organized by the police command of which the APC gubernatorial candidate failed to show up”.

The DG recalled that the same ugly incident happened in Toro Local Government and Akuyam village of Misau Local Government Area, where three people were shot dead by the security personnel of Sadiq Abubakar when he went there on campaign tour.

Hon. Mustapha called on the ministry of defense to check the flagrant abuse, and use of conventional security personnel and firearms in the name of providing security to retired members of the armed forces.

In their reaction, the APC gubernatorial campaign Council, in a statement it titled: “Thugs open fire on Air Marshal Sadique’s convoy in Gov Bala’s Village,” signed by its Director, Media and Publicity, Salisu A Barau, dismissed the allegation by the PDP.

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 Governor, Sen. Bala Mohammed.”

According to eyewitnesses, he said sounds of sporadic shootings were heard around the premises where the 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.”

He disclosed that “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,” the statement also said.