Posted by This Day Online on
At lease five persons were feared killed in Azare Fatiha town, Bauchi State at the weekend when supporters of Governor Ahmadu Adamu Muazu and those of the former Aviation Minister Madam Isa Yuguda clashed at a wedding.
At lease five persons were feared killed in Azare Fatiha town, Bauchi State at the weekend when supporters of Governor Ahmadu Adamu Muazu and those of the former Aviation Minister Madam Isa Yuguda clashed at a wedding.
Apart from the five persons that were feared dead several others were wounded while properties running into several millions of naira were destroyed.
ThisDay checks revealed that trouble started when supporters of Yuguda were prevented by security operatives from attending the wedding between the daughter of Dr. Musa Babayo (Talban Katagum) and son of Ambassador Balarabe Abubakar Tafawa Balewa.
However, Governor Mu'azu in a statement signed by his commissioner for information, Alhaji Ibrahim Zailani, said that he narrowly escaped being assassinated by a group of hoodlums, suspected to be Yuguda supporters, who ambushed his motorcade.
According to the statement made available to newsmen in Bauchi on Sunday, the 'persons suspected to be supporters of Yuguda ambushed Mu'azu's convoy on it's way to the wedding firing random gun shots at the convoy '.
The statement added that 'it took the governor's security men about 45 minutes to disperse the hoodlums and clear the way for the governor and his convoy", explaining that 'Mu'azu was not hurt but some vehicles were damaged with members of the entourage sustaining injuries and the governor was visibly surprised".
While sympathizing with those who received injuries, the commissioner reiterated the commitment of the government to ensure that peace and security prevail in the state.
However, the governor warned that the government would not fold its arms and allow acts of lawlessness by any person or group of persons, no matter how highly placed to disrupt the peace and progress recorded in the state, pointing out that investigation of the fracas was being intensified to unravel the circumstances responsible for the clash.
In his reaction, the former aviation minister equally alleged that attempts to assassinate him in Azare at the weekend had been made by persons suspected to be supporters of Governor Mu'azu.
Malam Yusuf Musa Gar, Campaign co-ordinator and special assistant to the former minister who made the allegation said after the wedding in Azare, the former minister had stopped at the house of a retired military officer when hoodlums attacked, blocking the exit with bonfires and attacked their target with cutlasses, cudgels and other dangerous objects.
He said the act was captured on camera and showed photographs of youths armed, adding that their mission would have been successful but for Yuguda's bodyguards who rescued him and took him to a place of safety.
Gar, who could not disclose the name of the retired military officer friend in whose house the former minister was attacked, however, said the Bauchi State police commissioner later arrived at the scene.
He maintained that Yuguda was the target of the assassins, and therefore, Gar, called on security organs to fish out those behind the act, expressed the hope that the country will not return to the dark where opponents in bid of settling political scores eliminate their foes.
All efforts to get comment from the state commissioner of police and command's PPRO on the matter proved abortive as they were said to be attending security meeting, probably on weekend clash.