Zonal Vice Chairman, Kogi Central senatorial district of Action Alliance (AA), Comrade Abdullaziz Yusuf, has called on the state command of Nigerian Police to investigate an attack on him and other supporters of the party.
Addressing a press conference in Lokoja on Saturday, Yusuf said the attack was targeted at assassinating him as the suspected political thugs who were dressed in police uniform had double crossed one of their campaign vehicles shooting sporadically into the air and forced all all the occupants of the vehicle to disembark.
He explained that they were returning from its party rally at Eganyi and Geregu villages in Ajaokuta local government area on Thursday when the thugs attacked them.
He said the thugs laid the occupants of the vehicle by the road side dispossessing them of their valuables and asking for his whereabout.
“I, in company of the party Local Government Chairmen, the Director General of our campaign organization and other party leaders, attended a rally for our governorship candidate, Otunba Olayinka Braimoh held at Eganyi and Geregu village on 26th October 2023 between 12 noon and 5PM.
“On our way from the Geregu village rally, driving back to Okene, we suddenly realized we were being trailed and one of our party car was eventually intercepted just at the Geregu power plant station at about 5:40PM by a black Prado jeep as well as a black Ford Hilux loaded with Ak 47 rifles, with fierce looking occupants some of who where dressed in mobile Police uniform.
“After one of our party car was intercepted, a fierce looking thug wearing mobile Police uniform who we later learnt to our dismay was the security detail to Ajaokuta local government Chairmen, Mustapha Aliyu Akaaba began to shoot sporadically in the air and shouting disarm all of them, shoot them.
“As the shooting and threat was going on, our party member in the intercepted car, a Siena bus was forcefully disembarked and made to lie down on the floor while they started scrutinizing their faces and asking them my whereabout.
“In an apparent effort to assassinate me, as God will have it, I was in another vehicle that had managed to have diverted when we noticed the trailing from their vehicles. It was when they could not find me that the gun wading thugs began to ransack our supporters who were still lying helplessly on the ground and launched what I will term a robbery operation, dispossessing our supporters of a cumulative N60,000.
“After the whole incident has ended and many of us are still in fear, we later got report that, the same black Prado jeep with All Progressive Congress (APC) logo which had earlier intercepted us was cited at the residence of the Ajaokuta local government chairman, Mustapha Aliyu Akaaba,” he said.
Yusuf who said the matter had since been reported to the police, appealed to the Kogi State Police command to do a thorough investigation and bring the perpetrators to book, as well as investigate the use of Police orderlies by some politicians as political thugs to harass other law abiding politicians on campaign rallies.
He also appealed to the police in the state to ensure they provided adequate security for the people of the state before, during and after the election, in line with the promise made by the Inspector General of Police.
Efforts to speak with the Kogi State Police Public Relations Officer, SP William Ovye Aya proved abortive as at the time of filing this report.
