APC candidate seeks Buhari’s intervention over ‘persecution’ of party members in Taraba

The candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for Taraba South Senatorial District, Usman Danjuma Shiddi, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to intervene over persecution and intimidation of APC members on the orders of Governor Darius Ishaku.

Shiddi, who represents Wukari/Ibi Federal Constituency, while addressing a press conference in Abuja yesterday, expressed worry over the manner in which the governor, who is also a candidate for Taraba South Senatorial District, was deploying state apparatus to muzzle the opposition ahead of the election.

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He said, “I want to say today that democracy is about to somersault in Taraba. Governor Ishaku Darius has been so impatient with the opposition and is assaulting democracy in Taraba, particularly Southern Taraba.

“And to us he is testing the waters. And if he goes scot-free in what he is doing, we do know what we would do as the election approaches.”

He said his campaign director general and two other APC leaders had since been detained on trump-up charges by the “powers that be” in the state, while many of his supporters had continued to face persecution and intimidation in the state.

He further said that, “We don’t know what will happen next again. We are being intimidated all over. And all these are geared towards the 2023 elections. If he knows that he is grounded, why is he afraid of opposition? If you know you are on ground, why use state power and resources to muzzle up opposition?”

But reacting, Governor Ishaku dismissed the allegations by the lawmaker, describing them as false and baseless.

The Commissioner for Information, Lois Emmanuel, said Governor Ishaku had no hand in the arrest of Shiddi’s senatorial campaign director general and other party leaders as alleged.

She maintained that, “In his failed attempt to exaggerate the claim of a collapsing democracy, the lawmaker tried vainly to link Governor Darius Ishaku to the arrest of one Yakubu, a Takum-based political thug under the lawmaker’s payroll.”

She said that Yakubu was arrested by the police in Takum for alleged disruption of peace during the foundation laying ceremony of a private university recently.”