Barely less than 24 hours after the signing of a peace accord by governorship candidates in Bauchi State, one person has been confirmed dead and 14 others injured in a violent clash between supporters of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) during the APC gubernatorial campaign rally in Duguri, the hometown of Governor Bala Mohammed.
Bauchi State Police Public Relations Officer, SP Ahmed Wakil, who confirmed the incident to Daily Trust in a telephone interview, said that one Muhammad Abdullahi has been confirmed dead at the General Hospital Alkaleri while 14 others are injured.
Wakil said, “We just came back from Duguri for an on-the-spot assessment visit led by the State Commissioner of Police, CP Alhassan Aminu, where the incident happened and visited the District Head of Yuli to commiserate with the family of the one who died in the incident.
“As of yesterday (Wednesday) when I spoke with journalists on the incident, no death was recorded; but today, one of the injured died in Alkaleri general hospital – one Muhammad Abdullahi.”
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Wakil explained that the Commissioner of Police directed the Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to commence a discreet investigation, adding that IPOs were presently on the ground investigating the root cause of the matter, saying “Our team of investigators led by the CP himself are in Duguri to fully investigate the matter.”
He noted that the CP condemned the incident in its totality and assured the people of the district that justice will be served for each and every one of them.
In a statement signed by Salisu A. Barau, the Director, Media and Publicity of the APC, it was alleged that PDP thugs opened fire on their governorship campaign entourage in Duguri.
“Suspected hired thugs, using dane guns opened fire on the convoy of the Bauchi state gubernatorial candidate of APC, Air Marshal Sadique Baba Abubakar (rtd), in Duguri the birthplace of the incumbent Bauchi state, Sen. Bala Mohammed.”
Barau explained that eyewitness accounts said they heard sounds of sporadic shootings around the premises where the campaign rally was being held, which made security operatives at the venue rush to the scene of the shootings where, in an attempt to disarm the thugs and retrieve the guns from them, shot three people.
He said, “Among the casualties were one Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps; a member of the local 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,” he said.
“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.”
On their part, the Director-General of the Bala Mohammed PDP Gubernatorial Campaign Council, Farouk Mustapha, alleged that the attack was carried out by thugs and members of the APC in Bauchi State.
Mustapha, who addressed journalists, claimed that trouble started when the gubernatorial candidate of the APC, Amb Sadique Baba Abubakar, went to Duguri Town in Alkaleri LGA for the last rush campaign accompanied by many notable politicians from across the country.
Mustapha also accused the APC of allegedly engaging the supporters of the Governor in a fracas, leading to the death of one person, scores of injured members of the community and the destruction of all PDP billboards and offices in the village.
“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,” Mustapha added.
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