By Mohammed Nasir Shuaibu (Bauchi State Correspondent)
The Bauchi State Police Commissioner, Aminu Alhassan, has ordered a discreet investigation into the shooting of a 20 year-old victim, Yakubu Yunusa, during a campaign rally at Akuyam, in Misau Local Government Area of the state.
The order came after the Command has confirmed that one person was reported dead and one other injured, following an attack on a campaign rally in Bauchi community by suspected thugs.
The Police Public Relations Officer of the Bauchi State Command, SP Ahmed Mohammed Wakil, who confirmed the incident to news reporters on Tuesday, said it occurred when the campaign team of the governorship candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC), Ambassador Sadique Baba Abubakar, was attacked on Monday in Akuyam, Misau local government area of Bauchi state.
Waki explained that when the campaign team was attacked, security operatives fired guns and one Yakubu Yunusa, a 20 years and Saleh Garba, 35, were shot and taken to Federal Medical Center (FMC) Azare for treatment.
He added that one of the victims, Yakubu Yinusa died early Tuesday morning.
“Yesterday, at 8:30pm, the gubernatorial candidate of the APC, Air Marshal Abubakar Sadique, was on his way from Dambam local government area to Akuyam for a campaign and on reaching Akuyam town, his entourage was attacked”, he said.
Wakil stated 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 further explained 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 political parties 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 that our people were attacked and about 15 to 20 cars were smashed. Some people from our side got injured”, he said.
“I 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.
Barau said the information available to him revealed that his people were attacked yesterday like the previous day before they managed to escape from that side.
“It was clear that it is 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. NNL.
