
One Dead As Thugs Invade Atiku Rally In Kaduna, Zamfara
By Muhammad Bello
Scores of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) supporters and enthusiasts who over-filled the 10,000 people capacity Ranchers Bees Stadium at Kaduna to witness the rally of the party’s presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, today, summoned courage to confront and throw out unidentified hoodlums who stormed the venue intent on disrupting the event.
The muggers, many of them youths brandishing dangerous locally made weapons entered the arena through the Northern gate and ran towards the cheering crowd standing on the pitch thereby causing confusion and stampede.
Their violent runs on the crowd, countered three times by the PDP supporters, momentarily upset the gathering. However, the staunch defiance of the PDP youths quelled the planned mayhem.
Shortly thereafter, Alhaji Abubakar, who was accompanied to the venue by one of his wives, Hajiya Rukayyatu, mounted the podium and reaffirmed his commitment to roll back the menace of insecurity in the country if voted into office in 2023.
He also pledged to, with the collaboration of the state government, if it is under the PDP; and private partners, resuscitate the moribund textile industry in the state.
The ex-Vice President, who expressed appreciation to the people of the state for giving the PDP tremendous support in 2019, also assured that he will work conscientiously to tackle unemployment through a public-private partnership and construct highways linking the state capital with Abuja, Jos and Kano while giving attention to intra-state roads as well.
In his remarks, the Director General of the Atiku/Okowa Presidential Campaign Organization (PCO), Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal of Sokoto state took a swipe at the unsuccessful brigandage orchestrated to mar the event by intruders.
“Back on Wednesday news filtered out that the PDP had suspended its rally. That was a fake news manufactured by the All Progressives Congress (APC),” which had intended to “throw spanners in our works.”
“They don’t want us to continue because they are not prepared and are busy fighting themselves.
“Kaduna has seen and felt the negative impacts of the APC. The textile industries and others have folded up under its watch. We, therefore, are here to ask you to come out and vote for Atiku,” Tambuwal, who also doubles as the Chairman of the PDP-Governors Forum and the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF), said.
The national chairman of the PDP, Sen. Iyorchia Ayu observed that the APC had wanted to truncate the rally, “but the PDP is on the road to winning.
“The APC has failed this country. We must rescue it. Anything they do we must resist. Let nobody distract you that we are going to lose. We are not a divided party,” Ayu stated, calling on the people of the state and all Nigerians to ensure that they vote for the PDP.
Kannywood actors and many artistes added flavor to the event packed by PDP bigwigs within and beyond Kaduna state.
@views exclusive rights: Muhammad Bello, Special Adviser Media And Publicity to the Governor, Sokoto State, October 17, 2022.