A member of the Atiku Abubakar’s campaign council and the Peoples Democratic Party’s head of New Media, Barrister Anthony Ehilebo has said that the All Progressives Congress, APC, is known for violence and that it’s not a surprise that hoodlums allegedly sponsored by the party attacked his principal’s convoy on Wednesday in Maiduguri, Borno State.
Recall that suspected hoodlums widely believed to have been sponsored by the APC attacked the convoy of Atiku Abubakar, the PDP presidential candidate.
According to Dino Melaye, a spokesman of the campaign council, about 74 persons were injured and are now admitted in hospitals across the state.
But the police was quick to dismiss the report of injured persons, saying it had gone to all hospitals in the state capital but could not identify anyone admitted in any hospital as a result of the incident.
The police public relations officer in the state, ASP Kamilu Shatambaya, while admitting that stones were thrown at the PDP presidential candidate’s convoy, no one sustained injuries in the process, even as he claimed that the attack did not happen during the rally.
But Ehilebo, in an exclusive chat with Legit.ng said only one party, the APC, currently partakes in the act of violence. He said the Maiduguri attack was the second in a row. While recalling the Kaduna attack, Ehilebo said all the party is known for is violence.
Insisting that APC is known for violence, Ehilebo said the party feels threatened by the growing popularity and support the PDP currently enjoys.
“That’s what they are known for. All their rallies and all their electoral processes are fraught with violence. It will be no surprise that when they noticed that they will lose a state like Borno and don’t want us to show how strong we are, having seen what has happened in our other campaign rallies, they came after us violently. Remember that this happened in Kaduna too. It’s the repeat of what they are known for.”
APC denies report But the All Progressives Congress, APC, has denied that the presidential candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar, was attacked in Maiduguri, Borno State, on Wednesday.
The party’s chairman in Borno State, Ali Bukar Dalori, while denying such an incidence of attack by APC thugs on any convoy of the opposition party in the state, said there is no PDP in Borno, let alone being attacked by the APC. Dalori told Vanguard that Dino Melaye was lying:
“I am disappointed by the allegations made by Dino Melaye that some APC thugs attacked Atiku’s convoy, while in Maiduguri for their presidential campaign rally. “We all know that since Governor Babagana Zulum took over the mantle of leadership, he banned political thuggery across the state. “Our ruling party is a law-abiding one, and that was why we, as a government, did not deny PDP venue for their rally as witnessed in some states. “All I know is that there is no PDP in Borno.”
