Jigawa Gov. Blackmailing Political Opponents Into Joining APC – Ex-Gov. Lamido

Sule-lamido

The immediate past Governor of Jigawa State, Alhaji Sule Lamido, has accused his successor, Mohammed Badaru Abubakar of running a tyrannical government in the state.

The former governor, who made the allegation yesterday at his Bamaina country home, said Gov. Abubakar was terrorising and victimising political opponents that refused to join the All Progressives Congress (APC).

It would be recalled that the Jigawa chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in January this year witnessed a mother-of-all-defections as 370,000 of its members dumped the umbrella for the broom – the symbols of the PDP and APC respectively.

Notable among the defectors were former members of the national assembly, commissioners and 15 serving local government council chairmen.

Lamido, who was publicly reacting to the mass defection for the first time, alleged that the present administration in the state was employing the tactics of intimidation and victimization on all the council chairmen to either abandon the PDP for the APC or to be subjected to various forms of harassment.

The former governor spoke during an occasion organised to honour 12 local government chairmen said to have refused to join the APC despite alleged threats.

“They (council chairmen) were terrorised and blackmailed and their official vehicles were seized by Badaru. They put a kangaroo kind of thing and sacked the chairmen of Jahun, Birniwa and Gumel local government areas, simply because they refused to join the APC.

“I think those that refused to join the APC should be celebrated because, despite coercion, compulsion, blackmail and victimisation by the APC, they still remained with us”.

However, in a swift reaction, Bello Zaki, the spokesperson to Governor Badaru, dismissed the allegation as untrue.

He said if the council chairmen were compelled to defect to the APC, the present government wouldn’t have allowed those that refused to decamp to remain at the helm of affairs of their councils up to the end of their tenure.