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Yero, El Rufai bicker over rising political violence

By Saxone Akhaine Northern Bureau Chief
09 March 2015   |   5:10 am
AHEAD of the 2015 general election in Kaduna State, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kaduna State, North West Nigeria are trading blames over recent violent attacks and killings in the state.    Governor Mukhtar Ramalan Yero’s Campaign group, under the aegis of Yero-Bajoga Campaign Organisation the All Progressives…

AHEAD of the 2015 general election in Kaduna State, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kaduna State, North West Nigeria are trading blames over recent violent attacks and killings in the state.

   Governor Mukhtar Ramalan Yero’s Campaign group, under the aegis of Yero-Bajoga Campaign Organisation the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, is accusing the APC of attempting to plunge the state into a political crisis in the run-up to the elections.

  However, El-Rufai has alleged Governor Yero and the PDP are using political thugs to destroy APC posters and other campaign materials within Kaduna metropolis and Zaria city, with the support of security operatives in the state.

  While exonerating the state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Governor Yero from some of the violence recorded during the campaign activities of the parties recently, the Governor’s Campaign Organisation blamed El-Rufai and his supporters for allegedly instigating clashes during some of the PDP Governorship Campaign rallies.

   Addressing journalists, the Chairman of the Media and Publicity Committee of Yero-Bajoga Governorship Campaign Committee, Alhaji Yakubu Lere said that “We have observed with utmost concern the continued, deliberate and calculated attempt by the APC, in Kaduna State to feed the gullible electorate with twisted and dubious lies, concocted and ditched out by people who are faced with obvious defeat.”

   Warning the APC Governorship flag bearer, Mallam El-Rufai against any violence by his supporters which may hamper the conduct of the 2015 polls in the State, Lere said that “it is a known fact that the PDP supporters in the State are peace loving and thus have not, and would never engage in violence of any nature even when provoked, unlike the APC hoodlums who have been terrorizing the electorate, compelling them to accept to vote their candidates or hell will be let loose.”

   Lere pointed to instances, whereby APC supporters have continued to allegedly force the people to accept the party by “forcefully pasting El-Rufai and General Muhammadu Buhari’s posters and other election campaign materials in peoples homes, cars and business premises”, adding that “if you don’t agree with the change they are chanting you will have the gate to your home broken or car damaged.”

  Lere argued further that “the truth is, during the campaign tour of Governor Yero at the weekend in Zaria, which was the grand finale, the unprecedented support shown to him by the people of Zaria and Sabongari Local Government Areas created fear in the camp of APC who had wrongly thought Zaria was their base.”

   On the allegation that PDP was behind the circulation of posters bearing the pictures of Governor Yero, El-Rufai and Buhari, the Governor’s Campaign Organisation said that “our investigations revealed that the posters were the handwork of some APC members who say El-Rufai is not a good material for the party and that is why among those who came out enmasse to welcome Governor Yero and his entourage were APC members.”

   Said Lere: “this is the fallout from the APC primaries where El-Rufai imposed himself and Bantex on the original APC members. And it is disheartening to note that the El-Rufai Campaign Organisation mobilized thugs on Sunday who attacked PDP members and pulled down PDP billboards and quickly went to the press to discredit the PDP.”

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