The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Bauchi state has accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) led administration in the state of orchestrating plans to arrest its gubernatorial candidate, Senator Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed.
This was disclosed by the state chairman of the party, Hamza Alisha Akuyam, while addressing speaking with journalists in Bauchi on Thursday.
He said that the planned arrest of the former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) was to intimidate him and his supporters as well as members of the party ahead of the governorship and House of Assembly elections on Saturday.
The PDP chairman further alleged that the plan is being hatched by the state governor, Mohammed Abubakar, together with the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in the state.
Akuyam disclosed that several PDP supporters have been arrested by the state government ahead of the coming elections adding that the plan is to release the arrested PDP supporters after the elections to weaken the chances of the main opposition party at the polls.
According to the chairman, there is also a plan to delay the distribution of election materials for the governorship and House of Assembly on Saturday.
The chairman therefore called on the INEC national headquarters to closely monitor the situation of things in Bauchi in order not to allow plans to manipulate the elections in state.
Reacting to the allegations, the Press Secretary to the state governor, Abubakar Al-Sadique, said Governor Abubakar does not need to arrest any member of the opposition to win election.
“We are peace-loving administration and do not need to arrest anybody before the good people of Bauchi vote for His Excellency, Barrister Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar massively to renew his mandate come Saturday.
“The allegation of an alleged plan to arrest the PDP candidate is nothing but false and baseless,” he said.
