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GOMBE: PDP campaign office attacked, set ablaze; Govt says it’s act of cheap publicity

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Suspected political thugs in the early hours of Monday, attacked the campaign office of the gubernatorial candidate of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Gombe State, Jibrin Barde, destroyed and set it ablaze.

The yet to be identified arsonists who are believed to be members of the opposition parties in the state, attacked the building for the second time in four months having carried out similar attack in August this year before the state government through its agents bulldozed the structure claiming security reasons.

While reacting to the development, the State Government absolved itself from any complicity in the attack urging the PDP to look elsewhere for the people that attacked the office.

A member of the campaign Council, Junaid Usman said, “There was an attack on the building housing the Barde Campaign Organisation in the early hours of today (Monday) by political thugs, suspected to be that of the sinking APC, setting ablaze the building and destroying properties.”

He further wrote that, “The cowardly attack on this edifice, one of many in the last months, further affirmed the present government’s stand on violence and destruction, a threat to the fragile peace of the state, which must vehemently be rejected by all and sundry”.

Read also:PDP chieftain, Gwamna, joins APC in Gombe

The State Police Command confirmed the incident promising however that everything humanly possible would be done to ensure that the perpetrators were arrested and brought to justice.

The Command PPRO, ASP Mahid Mu’azu Abubakar told our Correspondent on phone that, “yes, we received the report and our men swiftly went to the scene of the incident. The Commissioner of Police has already directed for a discreet investigation into the matter.”

The Command also called on politicians to watch the actions of their supporters to ensure that no breach of peace was aided by them warning that the Command would not condone any act that would breach the relative peace in the state.

In its reaction, Director General, Press Affairs to Governor Inuwa Yahaya, Ismaila Uba Misilli who spoke on phone said that “the PDP was just looking for cheap publicity after losing woefully to the APC as all its big wigs have left and joined the APC.”

He said that the entire opposition in the state is in no way a threat to the growth of the APC, wondering how the governor could have given such an order as alleged by the Barde campaign organization.

Misilli stressed that, “There’s no any reason that the Governor or any critical stakeholder in APC would instruct someone to attack the PDP campaign office. PDP is not in any way a threat to the APC because the party has consolidated its hold in the State.”

He then alleged that, “The PDP members torched their own campaign billboards themselves just to attract attention and sympathy”.

By Yemi Kanji

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