By Faruku Ahmed Gusau
With due respect, I will like to draw the attention of His Excellency, the President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, General Muhammadu Buhari (GCFR) of the current happening in Zamfara state in relation to the ongoing political campaigns authorized by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) where it stated that Political parties will be free to begin open campaigns beginning from September 28, 2022.
Since the ban on political activities was lifted in September 28, 2022, politicians all over the country have started going round, canvassing for support. Political activities are going on smoothly all over the country except Zamfara state where the ruling APC government is bent in ensuring that, the opposition PDP candidates are not given the enabling environment to go about their campaign activities.
Our party members are always intimidated harassed, arrested and detained by the security agents under the instructions of Governor Bello Mattawalle who is not comfortable with the increasing popularity of our candidates, particularly our gubernatorial candidate Dr Dauda Lawan Dare.
The first incident happened on Friday October 14, 2022 when our gubernatorial candidate Dr Dauda Lawan Dare and his entourage were attacked by heavily armed thugs, on Friday night while entering Gusau town. Our entourage was attacked on our way to Gusau by thugs sponsored by the APC and the state Governor. Many of our vehicles were smashed and burnt during the attack.
Similarly, The PDP had fixed October 15th as a day to receive thousands of APC decampees to the PDP as well as to inaugurate the 2023 governorship Campaign Council but very unfortunately, some APC thugs led by Aliyu Alhazai Shinkafi, the former chairman of the Zamfara Anti-thuggery committee and now Commandant of the Zamfara Road Traffic Agency (ZAROTA) attacked the residence of our gubernatorial candidate.
Aliyu Alhazai led thugs barricaded the road leading to Dauda Lawan Dare’s residence and venue, setting parameter for the attack. In the renewed unprovoked attack, our campaign buses were vandalized and looted.
Also in this week, the APC led government has also instructed the security agents to arrest and detain many of our party members for organizing a rally to welcome our gubernatorial candidate who was coming to the state from Sokoto. Among those currently in detention are the former Minister of information Alhaji Ikra Aliyu Bilbis who is also a Senatorial candidate for Zamfara central zone.
I want the President to note that, we the opposition PDP are in a critical situation in Zamfara state because the state government has been using the security personnel to persecute and prosecute our members.
The Peoples’ Democratic Party has been known to be law-abiding. We are a party that strictly works and abides by the law of the state.
That is the reason why when our gubernatorial candidate was embarking on his campaign last Sunday, we sought for permission from the state police command and our permission was granted but unfortunately the APC led government ordered the security agents to arrest our members, telling the world that our supporters have destroyed their billboards which is a complete lie.
I want to remind Mr. President of the promise he made of ensuring free and fair elections in 2023 to intervene in the crises about to erupt in Zamfara state following the persistent attacks of PDP members by the APC government in collaboration with the security personnel.
We are quite aware that, the APC and the Matawalle-led government intend to unlawfully use force to stop our campaign activities across the state which can never be possible.
We are appealing to the President to intervene and stop the APC and Governor Matawalle from unlawfully using state apparatus and thugs to attack our campaign activities.
We don’t want to retaliate considering the insecurity challenges affecting our dear state but if we are pushed to the wall, we will be left with no option but to defend ourselves.
Faruku Ahmed Gusau
Deputy Director, Dr Dauda Lawan Dare Campaign Organization.
