As PDP, APC trade accusations on alleged importation of thugs
Political thugs on Saturday attacked correspondents for the Nigerian Tribune Mr. Kola Oyelere and his The Authority Newspaper counterpart, Mr. Maduabuchi Nmeribe during the supplementary poll Suntulma Gama primary school polling centre in Gama Ward of Nasarawa local government area of Kano State.
The Punch reporter, Mr. Ted Odogwu sustained injuries while attempting to escape the attack.
It was gathered that the suspected thugs armed with machetes, cudgels, sticks and clubs also descended on voters at the polling centre and chased them away.
The Guardian reports that trouble ensued when The Authority reporter attempted to snap a picture of voters who were on queue to cast their ballots.
Suspicious of the mission of the reporter, the miscreants who wore tags that identified them as agents of a particular political party and were said to have been high on drugs, descended on the journalist, tore his clothes and disposed him of his valuables.
He was subsequently rescued through a combined effort of colleagues and bystanders.
The run-off conducted to decide the winner between Mr. Abba Kabir Yusuf of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), who polled 1,014,477 votes, and the incumbent governor, Mr. Abdullahi Ganduje of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who got 987,810 votes in the first poll conducted on March 9.
The margin between the candidates stood at 26,655 votes in favour of
Meanwhile, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the state called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to cancel the re-run governorship election across the 28 local government areas of the state, alleging that thugs had taken over the process.
The acting chairman of the party, Mr. Rabiu Sulaiman-Bichi, made the call while addressing a news conference in Kano on Saturday.
Bichi said there was need for the commission to cancel the election as the process had completely been taken over by armed political thugs.
“Today this charade called re-run election was slated to hold in Kano and other states but unfortunately, what we have in Kano is nothing but a sham.
“Reports reaching us since yesterday indicated that thugs have allegedly been mobilised to take over all the 208 polling units,” he said.
According to him, the thugs were allegedly brought from Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna, Plateau and other neighbouring states and were “armed to the teeth” posing as voters in the polling units in the localities.
The News Agency of Nigeria quotes the chairman as alleging that the thugs freely voted with the PVCs that did not belong to them, while some posed as INEC staff.
He said as a peace-loving party, the PDP had alerted security agencies in addition to writing a Letter of Caution to the INEC resident electoral commissioner in the state on the situation.
But the APC dismissed the allegation on the importation of political thugs from neighbouring states.
The APC state chairman, Alhaji Abdullahi Abbas, said the allegation against the ruling APC was not only untrue and unfounded, but a calculated attempt to dent the image of the party and the state government.
“How can we bring or invite people from other states to come to Kano, while we have people here, considering the population of Kano,’’ he said.
Abdullahi called on INEC to disregard the call for the cancellation of the re-run governorship election and ensure that the election is concluded.
“We are calling on INEC to ensure the successful completion of the exercise.
“It is unfortunate that the PDP chairman called for the cancellation of the election, while the election is still ongoing.
“This is a clear indication that they are afraid of losing the election, otherwise, why should he call for the cancellation of the election,” he said.
