The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Bauchi State, Sadique Abubakar, has denied recruiting militants and political thugs to work for him in the 2023 general election.

Abubakar made this known via a statement issued on Monday by his media aide, Salisu Ahmed Barau.

An online medium had earlier reported that Abubakar, a former Chief of Air Staff, recruited ‘1000 Militants, Political Thugs’ that would work for him in the 2023 governorship election in Bauchi State.

Reacting to the report, Barau stated that the said militants and thugs were hunters, cobblers, barbers, and blacksmiths who endorsed the candidacy of Abubakar.

He added that the report was the handiwork of the governorship candidate’s political opponents in their “dirty political efforts to scuttle the approval of Bauchi voters”.

Barau said: “This story is ostensibly fabricated to mislead the average Bauchi voters who are increasingly showing interests in ensuring the success of the All Progressives Congress candidate in the 2023 gubernatorial election, owing to the colossal failure of the ruling party to provide the State with purposeful leadership and dividends of democracy in the past three years.

“This political mischief, wrapped in a news garment, is apparently a dirty political hatchet job that calls for immediate clarification from the Air Marshal Sadique Baba Abubakar Media Office.

“To put the records straight, the publication in question, which publishers credited their sources to an unnamed Colonel of the Nigerian Army, said it is in possession of a ‘security signal’ on the said recruitment exercise, without further presenting facts, but only quoted some anonymous ‘politicians’ who obviously funded the publication.

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“Honourable Shehu Aliyu Musa (Barden Gabas of Bauchi), who is member of the association attended the meeting that was organised to congratulate him on his emergence as the running mate to Air Marshal Sadique Baba Abubakar with the leadership of the Bauchi State Amalgamated Associations of Butchers, Hunters, Cobblers, Blacksmiths, and Berbers after opening the Associations’ State Secretariat in Bauchi.

“Surprisingly, the newspaper in question only chose to replace the names of Butchers, Hunters, Cobblers, Blacksmiths, and Berbers with ‘Militants and Political Thugs’, mainly to give dog a bad name in order to justify its hanging.”

Abubakar’s aide added that the performance of the APC governorship candidate as Chief of Air Force made President Muhammadu Buhari appoint him as Nigeria’s ambassador to Chad Republic.

He said: “It is known fact that it was in recognition of the outstanding military career of the retired Air Marshal Sadique Baba Abubakar in the service of the nation that President Buhari immediately appointed Sadique as Nigeria’s Ambassador to the Republic of Chad to check some of the most notorious sources of criminal insurgency that have ravaged the north eastern part of this country in the past ten years.

“Isn’t surprising that of all the retinue of media houses and state correspondents that are in Bauchi State, only one online newspaper will report on matter with this magnified caption as the proceeding of a well-publicised meeting held on such a sensitive matter?

“The people of Bauchi State are some of the most politically sophisticated people that cannot be fooled by this kind of dirty political undertaking in the name of journalism; they know the crooks who sleep in the same bed with ‘militants and political thugs’ in their political sojourns.

“We remain steadfast and committed to our mission on winning the coming election. Therefore, no amount of cheap blackmail will not distract us.”

The Star