It took the timely intervention of security operatives to save the Caretaker Committee Chairman of Bogoro LGA, Elisha Tula Gwamis from the hands of irate youths in Malar- Giji Primary School Polling Unit 008, Bogoro D Ward in Bogoro Local Government Area of Bauchi State on Saturday, who chased him away for alleged vote buying in favour of his party, APC during the conduct of the gubernatorial supplementary election.
Malar- Giji is one of the Polling Units in the Constituency of Speaker of House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, where the supplementary gubernatorial election was held and it has a total of 1,130 registered voters.
An eyewitness who simply gave his name as Dauda, told Journalists who were in the area to cover the conduct of the election that the Caretaker Committee Chairman allegedly came to the Polling Unit with money in his car to induce voters so that they can vote for the APC candidate, incumbent State Governor, Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar who is seeking reelection.
The eyewitness narrated that: “This morning, the Chairman of Bogoro Local Government Area, came to this Polling Unit and called some people aside and started giving them money to make them vote for the APC. The youths around noticed what was going on and chased him away. In fact, it was the security operatives there that had to save him from being beaten by the youths who were already angry.”
But in a swift reaction to the allegations while speaking to journalists, the Caretaker Committee Chairman, Gwamis, dismissed the allegations saying they are “baseless and false” explaining though that he went to the Polling Unit but left almost immediately when suddenly some thugs attacked him.
Tula Gwamis added that, “I went to the Polling Unit and left after about five minutes. I entered my brother’s house close to the place and after I greeted them, I came out and stood close to my car when the youths gathered round me demanding to know what I was doing there. Before I knew it, one of them hit me on my chest and another youth raised a big stick he was holding in his hand and wanted to smash my head but the security operatives there were the people that quickly intervened and rescued me into my car.”
The Council Chairman added that, “these allegations are baseless, false and unfounded. I know these thugs and I know who they are working for.”
Meanwhile, a Lawmaker in the Bauchi State House of Assembly, Aminu Tukur, has alleged that the Governor Mohammed Abubabar’s desperation to win the election in the state has made him waste government money.
While speaking with newsmen in an interview, he said that the ruling All Progressives Congress in the state and its Governorship Candidate, Mohammed Abubakar are self-centered adding that this is a known fact to the public.
Aminu Tukur, who has insisted that he is still a member of the APC currently representing Lere/Bula in Tafawa Balewa Local Government Area in the Bauchi State House of Assembly said: “What we want the world to know is the grand plan by the Bauchi State Government to rig the elections which the federal government have allowed him to do in connivance with the security agencies and INEC.”
He added that, “The people of Bauchi State are waiting for the whole world to come and bail them out because they are about to be robbed of the mandate given to Senator Bala Mohammed to lead the State.”
He alleged that the APC government is bent on seeing that the yearnings and aspirations of the Bauchi State are thrashed by enforcing Gov. Abubabakar on the people and wondered why supplementary election was being held when results of Tafawa Balewa LGA were still pending.
“They want him (the incumbent Governor) to continue his maladministration, mismanagement of our resources and mismanagement of our collective intelligence to service personal interests, that is what is happening in the political arena in Bauchi State. By the laws of the land and provisions of the Electoral Act, a re-run is done to augment difference and should only be done when elections have been concluded,” he said.
In an earlier reaction to allegations that the APC was planning to rig the supplementary elections, the APC State Chairman, Uba Ahmed Nana, at a press conference, denied such plans.
According to him, “there is no such plans by the APC, it is the PDP that is planning to do that but for us, we don’t even know how to rig. They are the people that are used to rigging, for us, we believe that the people will vite for us.
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