A convoy involving President Muhammadu Buhari was alleged to
have been attacked in Kano state on Monday.
There were varying versions of what reportedly happened in
Hotoro area of Kano state, with several persons said to have hurled stones at
the president’s convoy.
There were also videos that went viral on Monday showing
stones littering a road said to be the area where the president’s convoy was
expected to pass through.
In one of the videos, a voice in the background said the people were angry at the president and decided to attack him with stones.
“This is Kano state.
People are picking up stones and stoning the president here in Hotoro at
exactly Hadeja-Jama’are River basin. People are just stoning, saying the
president won’t pass. Residents of Kano are angry. It is happening now in
Hotoro,” the voice in the background said in Hausa.
“Oh my God! This is even before his arrival; see plenty
stones on the streets,” a voice in another video said.
‘OUTRIGHT TREASON’
Reacting to the incident in a statement, Debo Ologunagba,
PDP spokesperson, described the alleged incident as treason and sacrilege.
“This organised attack on the person of the President is
outrightly treasonable and a sacrilegious assault on our national sovereignty
which must be condemned by all,” the PDP said.
“Our Party is alarmed that this attack is part of APC
Presidential Candidate’s alleged plot to undermine the Presidency, cause
confusion, trigger violence in the country, disrupt the conduct of the 2023
general elections and derail our democracy; having realised that he cannot win
in a peaceful, free and fair electoral process.
“The PDP invites Nigerians to note how Governor Abdullahi
Ganduje attempted to abridge President Buhari’s movement and even tried to stop
him from visiting Kano State. More disquieting is the fact that the APC
Presidential Campaign sought to humiliate and harm President Buhari, while
performing his official duties in Kano.
“It should be noted
that the APC Presidential Candidate has been displaying open aversion and
making inciting statements against President Buhari since Mr. President’s declaration,
in line with democratic best practice all over the world, that Nigerians should
freely vote for any candidate and Party of their choice in the 2023 general
elections.
“The apparent frustration of Asiwaju Tinubu to resort to
encourage or condone violence is fueled by his entitlement mentality, that it
is his turn to be President, despite his numerous ineligibility and disability
baggage.
“Nigerians are reminded about Asiwaju Tinubu’s infamous
statement in London where he declared to his supporters that ‘political power
is not going to be served in a restaurant, it is not served a la carte. It is
what we are doing; It is being determined; you do it at all cost; fight for it,
grab it, snatch it and run with it’.”
‘IMAGINARY ATTACK’
However, Bayo Onanuga, spokesperson of the APC presidential
campaign council, dismissed the claim of the attack and criticised the PDP for
reacting to something “imaginary”.
“We were not surprised to read of the imaginary attack on
the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria being peddled by the Peoples
Democratic Party since the party has nothing tangible to tell Nigerians from
its crumbling Presidential Campaign,” Onanuga said.
“This invented attack on President Muhammadu Buhari must have
happened only in the fertile imagination of PDP National Publicity Secretary,
one Debo Ologunagba.
“Nigerians should disregard this fake news from a party that
has lost touch with reality and suffering the agony of violating its own rules
on power rotation.
“Just as it has been masterminding fake news against the APC
presidential candidate and trying vainly to cause disharmony in the APC family,
we believe the party may have planned to embarrass President Buhari in Kano and
then put the blame on host Governor Ganduje and Tinubu.
“This is because PDP has of recent morphed from being a
Buhari virulent critic to strangely becoming a Buhari spokesperson! The last
time it issued a self-serving misinterpretation of Asíwájú’s statement in
Abeokuta as an attack on President Buhari.
“It should be quite
obvious to Nigerians that the knowledge of impending defeat of PDP at the
coming presidential poll has pushed the party and its candidate into frenzied
hallucinatory mode of mindless, ridiculous, ludicrous litany of lies and fabrications
against APC and its candidate.
“The PDP is a drowning party feverishly clawing at any straw
of lies and lashing out in all delusional directions to keep afloat – but sink
it will. We believe Nigerians are not taken in by the jejune antics.”
Onanuga also asked security agencies to “arrest” Ologunagba
over his comments regarding the alleged attack.
Meanwhile, the development comes hours after Abdullahi
Ganduje, Kano governor, made a U-turn over the president’s visit to the state.
Ganduje had asked the president to postpone the visit over
security concerns and difficulty in accessing the new naira notes.
However, after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) extended
the deadline, the Kano governor visited the president and announced that the
state was “very ready” for Buhari’s Monday visit.
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