Zamfara APC, PDP Trade Words Over Attack On PDP Governorship Candidate

The Zamfara State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has denied been behind the alleged attack on the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) governorship candidate, Dr Dauda Lawal.

Naija News reports that the PDP governorship candidate had claimed that he and other members of the party were attacked by suspected political thugs last week Friday.

The attack which resulted in the death of one person and 18 injured people happened after the party allegedly violated the state government’s order not to hold campaigns because of the insecurity issues in the state.

However, the Zamfara state’s APC has responded to the allegations of Lawal that he was attacked by thugs, allegedly sponsored by the APC during the PDP governorship campaign at the Government Residential Area of the state.

Naija News had earlier reported that the PDP’s presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar, outrightly condemned the attacks, saying it was an attempt to scuttle the lawful right of Nigerians to assemble peacefully.

In response to this allegation, the Publicity Secretary of the Zamfara APC, Yusuf Sani said “PDP disobeyed the executive order by failing to stop their political campaigns despite the level of insecurity plaguing the state.”

Sani, who said this in a Channels Television interview today, noted that the PDP was ‘insensitive’ about the issue of insecurity in the state, which was why they couldn’t suspend their campaign as other parties did.

He added that the PDP thugs attacked 18 environmental workers and killed one of them.

“There was an executive order signed by the governor and other security agencies in the state. The accord asked political parties to be suspended for at least 10 days to enable the agencies to curb insurgents. But the PDP decided not to comply with the order, not taking note that the lives of our citizens should be higher than any goal,” he added.

However, the deputy chairman of the state PDP, Mouktar Lugga, who was also on the Channels Television interview, stated that it has always been in the habit of the APC to always use insecurity as a political weapon with no permission from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Lugga said, “The PDP had no single billboard because the APC would not allow it. There is a difference between an executive order and the constitution. They should have written to INEC to adjust the date. We obeyed the order when it complied with the INEC timetable.

“All these issues about insecurity are highly politicised. Just some days ago, they opened 45 schools claiming that the state was safe, and then afterwards during our campaigns, they say Zamfara is not safe.

“We applied to the relevant agencies and they permitted us to do so. The campaign was held in the residence of the governorship candidate. It was not done outside the premises. They infiltrated our campaign and attacked our PDP members. We have six security vehicles, yet we were attacked.”