By; MOHAMMED KAWU, Bauchi
Gubernatorial Campaign Committee of Ambassador Sadique Abubakar in Bauchi under the All Progressives Congress (APC), has vowed that no amount of campaign of calumny would deter it from catching the state’s plum seat come 2023 general elections in the country.
The Air Marshal Sadique Baba Abubakar Media & Publicity Committee Chairman, Hon Salisu Ahmed Barau described as false alarm, what it described as a concocted story sponsored by the Bauchi State Government that APC in the state has recruited1,000 militants’ political thugs ahead of Bauchi governorship elections slated for next February.
Reacting to what he described as ‘Concocted Sahara Reporters’ Story’, Barau said that the story was ostensibly fabricated to mislead the average Bauchi voters who are increasingly showing interest in ensuring the success of the All Progressives Congress candidate in the 2023 gubernatorial elections.
He explained that owing to the colossal failure of the ruling PDP in the state to provide purposeful leadership and dividends of democracy in the past three years, saying it was a political mischief wrapped in a news garment as a dirty political hatchet job.
“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”.
Surprisingly, said the media committee chairman, 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.
As law-abiding citizens, we did not hold the meeting in question until we officially sought for and obtained the approval of the Bauchi State Police Commissioner who was represented at the meeting by an Assistant Superintendent of Police.
“The mere mention of ‘militants and political thugs’ in the publication gives away those behind the write up as some Bauchi politicians that are already scared, that since he secured the gubernatorial ticket of the APC, people from all parts of the state are shifting their support from various camps to the aspiration of Air Marshal Sadique Baba Abubakar, the new entrants being members of Butchers, Hunters, Cobblers, Blacksmiths, and Berbers Associations”.
Barau recalled 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 him 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.
He queried, “It therefore baffles the reader that someone who spent the past forty years of his life defending his country, will now be accused of turning against it. Isn’t surprising that of all the retinue of media houses and state correspondents that are in Bauchi state, only one outside online medium will report on matter with this magnified caption as the proceeding of a well-publicized meeting held on such a sensitive matter?
“While we encourage investigative reporting as an important ingredient of democracy, we urge all journalists to ensure that they discharge their obligations by feeding their audiences with facts and not to allow their platforms to be used for the advancement of someone’s political ambition”.
Barau also described the people of Bauchi state as the most politically sophisticated that cannot be fooled by this kind of dirty political undertaking in the name of journalism, as they know the crooks who sleep in the same bed with ‘militants and political thugs’ in their political sojourns.
He categorically stated that it is the dismal performance of the PDP government in Bauchi that prompted the entry of the retired Air Marshal Sadique Baba Abubakar into the gubernatorial race, as the APC remained steadfast and committed to its mission on winning the coming election and ensuring good governance in the state.
