• Ex-VP visits IBB, condoles with Niger gov over attacks
• Govt vows to fish out culprits
• Leadership tussle in Bauchi APC worries stakeholders
Hoodlums suspected to be loyal to the All Progressives Congress (APC), yesterday, attacked and set the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Secretariat in Gombe State ablaze.
The assailants, numbering over 200, according to sources, also stormed the National Headquarters, North East Business Communities (NEBCO), Atiku for President 2023 in Bauchi, where they destroyed facilities and burnt the former vice president’s campaign posters.
Aside the main hall that was burnt, other quarters and offices within the facilities were seriously vandalised.
The arsonists were said to have stormed the secretariat along Federal Secretariat junction, Bauchi road, on motorcycles about 01.15a.m.
Gombe PDP Chairman, Amnon Kwaskebe, said: “This is a disappointment from a leader entrusted with life and property. They are interested in violence, but we are interested in winning the next election.”
The Publicity Secretary, Murtala Dukku, described the violence as “one too many”.
In the same vein, former Speaker of the House of Assembly, Inuwa Garba, said the attack was uncalled for, urging religious and traditional leaders to rise and condemn the action to avert reprisal.
Despite the attack on his office, Atiku visited former Military President, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida (rtd) in his Uphill residence, Minna, Niger State.
From the Hilltop mansion, the PDP chieftain drove to Government House to condole with Governor Abubakar Bello over attack by bandits on the state.
Though purpose of the meeting with Babangida was kept under wraps, it was gathered that it might not be unconnected with Atiku’s presidential ambition, of which he is still making wide consultations.
MEANWHILE, the state government has vowed to go after the assailants.
The Commissioner for Information and Culture, Ishaya Lepez, at a press briefing, described the perpetrators as political thugs acting under the clear instruction and supervision of enemies of the peace-loving people and government of Gombe.
“This show of desperation is the trademark of some power- and blood-thirsty people, who lost control of the state’s treasury and are hell-bent on returning,” he stated.
BARELY three months after the APC congresses in the 36 states of the federation, stakeholders of the party from Bauchi Central Senatorial Zone have urged the National Reconciliation Committee (NRC) to look into complaints by members of the party.
Chairman of Bauchi Central APC stakeholders, Adamu Noma, who made this call yesterday in Abuja, insisted that the NRC has not visited the state for mediation.
Recalling that the NRC headed by former Governor of Nasarawa State, Abdullahi Adamu, was set up to look into complaints by members of the party after the congress, Noma disclosed that party faithful had written to the committee about the lingering leadership crisis that engulfed the party in the state after two parallel chairmen, Sunusi Kunde and Babayo Aliyu, emerged through different congresses.
Noma said a Bauchi High Court had on December 8, 2021, issued an order of interim injunction halting Babayo Aliyu from parading as Bauchi APC Chairman.
