Bauchi State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has condemned the shooting of a group of people in Akuyam, Misau LGA during the campaign rally of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) gubernatorial candidate, Saddique Abubakar leading to the death of one person.
Addressing Journalists at the Government House on Wednesday, the DG, Bala Mohammed 2023 Campaign Council, Farouk Mustapha described the situation as most unfortunate and condemnable.
According to him, “Information reaching our Campaign Council indicated that the security agents attached to the gubernatorial candidate of the APC, Air Marshal Sadique Baba Abubakar rtd fatally shot 2 people, Saleh Garba, 35 years old and Yakubu Yunusa, 20 years old at Akuyam Town in Misau LGA where the APC gubernatorial candidate went for a campaign rally on Monday, 30th January 2023.”
“According to an eyewitness, quote the chant of “Ba ma yi, Ba ma yi” rant the air, specifically to show their rejection of the APC and its gubernatorial candidate which the Police attached to him found offensive and started positioning themselves in different postures that is more aggressive.
“Suddenly, the overzealous security agents started shooting into the crowd and the bullets struck many people but 2 young persons were hit while others sustained serious gunshot injuries,” he added.
“We were equally informed that the rally ended abruptly and the gubernatorial candidate left the venue not minding to see the injured victims.
“The injured victims were rushed to a nearby hospital, FMC Azare for treatment, we are sad to announce that one of the victims, 20 year old died in the hospital due to the gunshot in the early hours of yesterday (Tuesday), 31st January, 2023 and has since been buried according to Islamic rites. The Bauchi State Police Command through its PPRO has since confirmed the incident,” he added.
The Campaign Council DG declared that, “Consequently, the PDP campaign council is saddened with this ugly incident, especially as it relates to the cause of the death of Yunusa Yakubu.
“By this press conference, we wish to extend our heartfelt condolences to his immediate family, his people of Akuyam and the entire people of Bauchi State. We condemned in its totality, the use of force by security agents attached to opposition parties in the state to harass and maim innocent citizens of the state, we call on relevant security agencies to investigate the matter and bring the culprits to book any erring security personnel found to be culpable.”
While responding to questions from Journalists, the DG said that it is a normal thing in politics for people to openly show and demonstrate their love or otherwise to any political party at any time which should not provoke any anger from the other party.
He also faulted the decision of the APC and its gubernatorial candidate to be going out for campaign rally at night saying that “such is dangerous for everyone, it should be discouraged in the interest of peace.”
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Farouk Mustapha stressed that campaign posters, songs, billboards and other materials should not scare any serious politician because such don’t win elections saying however that, “You know that the APC gubernatorial candidate just removed his khaki uniform after 40 years service, he is not used to such hues and cries of politics, the reason he is reacting negatively.”
He does not also see anything bad about songs and slogans being used by the political parties saying that each political party is trying to out do each other in verbal war which is one of the beauties of democracy and electioneering campaigns.
The DG however assured that the PDP will continue to engage the people of the state in a civilized and polite way selling its achievements in the last three years in order to win their confidence and get voted for a second term.
He also denied that the APC campaign train was attacked by anyone challenging the party to come out with strong evidence to prove their claims saying, “having failed to win the confidence of the electorate, the APC could have stage managed the attack in order to give opposition a bad name.”
On the issue of burning brooms, he said that it is a normal thing, anyone who changed a political party will burn all the insignia of the former party, nothing is wrong about that, PDP flags and umbrella too were burnt, it should not provoke anyone.
“We as a party are law-abiding people, we don’t engage in such, none of our boys have reacted violently against any of their provocations. We are in politics and we are ready to play according to the rules.”
He called on the supporters of the PDP not to be provocated in any way because according to him, “President Muhammadu Buhari in his recent visit to Bauchi publicly commended my Governor for a job well done, what else do we want. The people are happy with the PDP and are ready to vote for the candidates.”
