Police confirms death of one person after attack on Campaign rally by thugs in Bauchi

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Samuel Luka, Bauchi

The Bauchi State Police Command has confirmed that

One person was reported dead and one other injured following an attack on a campaign rally in Bauchi by thugs, the police said.

The police public relations officer of the Bauchi state command, SP Ahmed Mohammed Wakil who made the confirmation to reporters yesterday said that the incident occurred when the campaign team of the governorship candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC), Ambassador Sadique Baba Abubakar was attacked in Akuyam, Misau local government area of Bauchi State on Monday.

SP Waki said when the campaign team was attacked, security operatives fired guns where one Saleh Garba, 35 and Yakubu Yunusa, 20 were shot and taken to Federal Medical Center, FMC Azare for treatment.

He added that one victim died early Tuesday morning.

“Yesterday, at 8:30pm, the gubernatorial candidate of the APC, Air Marshal Abubakar Sadique, on his way from Dambam local government area to Akuyam for a campaign and on reaching Akuyam town, his entourage was attacked”, he said.

SP Wakil explained that, “as a result of that, his escorts opened fire while two persons, Saleh Garba aged 35 years and Yakubu Yunusa, 20 years old, all of Akuyam village were affected and were evacuated to the Federal Medical Center, Azare for treatment”.

He said further that, “today (Tuesday), we received confirmation that one of them was dead while receiving treatment.

Reacting to the incident in an interview with journalists, the Director Media and Communications to the APC Gubernatorial candidate, Salisu Barau accused the opposition of attacking the party’s campaign train and its supporters.

According to him, they pleaded with their supporters not to fight back.

“I was not there but from the information we gathered, we were able to confirm from the incident of yesterday that our people were attacked and about 15 to 20 cars were smashed. Some people from our own side got injured”, he said.

“I personally noticed that there were some people on trees throwing stones and all those attacks were on us not on any other person in Akuyam, that was the first day. We were able to escape out of the town”, Salisu explained.

Salisu Barau who said information available to him showed that his people were attacked yesterday like the previous day before they managed to escape from that side.

“It was clear that it was the opposition that attacked us because we cannot attack ourselves. We were in Misau, nothing happened, along all the routes leading to Misau, we were at Darazo, we stopped at Sade, came to Hardawa, all those times that we were there, we attacked nobody and nobody attacked us”, he further said.

However, our Corresspondent gathered that the Commissioner of Police, Bauchi command headquarters, Aminu Alhassan, has directed for a discreet investigation into the matter.