Borno State Governor, Babagana Zulum, says the attack on the convoy of the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, in the state was neither deliberate nor pre-planned.
Zulum said the attack on Atiku’s convoy in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital on November 9, was spontaneous outburst by some political thugs cutting across all political parties.
The governor said this during the inauguration of the campaign council of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Borno State on Monday.
Speaking at the event held at the Government House in Maiduguri, Governor Zulum said: “There have been recent disturbing and worrisome political developments in the state. I am specifically referring to the spate of violence and assault meted out to the PDP and its presidential candidate (Atiku ) when they came here (Maiduguri) for their campaign rally.
“I want to put it on record that the assault was neither deliberate nor pre-planned. It was a spontaneous outburst by a coterie of some political party miscreants, cutting across all political parties.
“Suffice it to point out that what happened was despicable and unwarranted and it strikes at the very essence of democracy, which thrives and matures amidst the plurality of political parties. It has been posited time and again that any move against an opposition political party tends to raise the popularity of the opposition in the eyes of the electorate.
“So it is fruitless to even contemplate attacking the opposition. I have absolute confidence in the ability of security agencies investigating the matter to do justice, equity and fairness both to the victims and the culprit,” he stated.
The governor added that his administration has succeeded in fulfilling most of the promises made during the 2019 governorship campaigns in the state.
“Of the promises we made, masha’Allah we were able to deliver thousands of houses and shelter for our people, and were able to support consistently over 2.7 million people with food, funds and facilities to make their lives more meaningful. We built many roads in different areas of the state. We built more schools, hospitals, police posts, markets and many more.
“We promised improvement in security and by the grace of Almighty Allah, everyone can objectively verify that indeed the security situation has improved significantly. We are not going to rest on our oars. We plan to continue on this path of progress to consolidate the gains of the last few years of our stewardship.
“It is true that I could stand here for the next one-week listing and detailing all the things that we did during the first tenure that is coming to an end. To make it easier for people to track what we have done, you will see everything published clearly inside newspapers and other media of communication for ease of reference.
“Our projects are not paper projects. They are there for all to see. For us most importantly, we did not only build bricks and blocks, we fulfilled the promise of being with our people regardless of their location or situation. We visited all our local governments multiple times in good and bad times,” Zulum said.
He, however, warned the campaign council members that he was vehemently opposed to the use of political thugs at any point, before, during or after any election in the country.
In his remarks, the APC Chairman in Borno State, Ali Dalori, charged members of the campaign council to work towards delivering all the political units in the state to the ruling party in the 2023 general election.
Speaking on the composition of the council, Dalori said there were 22 strategic committees which included campaign council management and coordination, campaign patrons, campaign advisory, planning and strategic monitoring, finance and fund-raising, media and publicity, contact and mobilisation, among others.
Others at the event were the Borno State Deputy Governor, Umar Kadafur; former Borno State Governor, Maina Lawan; and Sen. Ali Ndume, among others.
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