The Zamfara State chapter of the All Progressives Congress has denied an alleged attack on the state governorship candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, Dr Dauda Lawal.
The Publicity Secretary of APC, Yusuf Sani, said PDP disobeyed the executive order by failing to stop their political campaigns despite the level of insecurity plaguing the state.
It was earlier reported that Lawal was allegedly attacked during the PDP governorship campaign at the Government Residential Area of the state by thugs sponsored by the APC.
In an interview with Channels Television monitored by our correspondent, the Deputy Chairman of the PDP, Mouktar Lugga, and Sani were featured to engage the issues, on Monday.
Sani said the PDP thugs attacked 18 environmental workers and killed one of them. He also accused the PDP of being ‘insensitive’ to the people for not suspending their campaign while other parties did so.
“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.”
Responding to an alleged high-handedness, and the issue of safety in the Zamfara GRA, the Sani said, “Nigerian Airforce had taken a blow against the bandits and this has caused them to carry out reprisals. This made the governor in collaboration with the state security council make the decision. The bandits blocked the roads. Insecurity in the state is a daily challenge.”
Lugga responded by saying that the APC had continued to use insecurity as a political weapon without noting the constitutional rights of the association, and the INEC.
He said the timetable of the campaign was done in the house of the governorship candidate of the party, Dr Dauda Lawal.
Lugga added, “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.”
