PDP Members, Not APC, Pelted Jonathan In Bauchi - Gov Yuguda

Bauchi State Governor, Isa Yuguda yesterday said those who pelted President Goodluck Jonathan at Thursday’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential rally in the state were PDP members hired by Abuja politicians from the state. The governor exonerated All Progressives Congress (APC) members from the attack on the president’s convoy which was pelted on its way to the Emir’s palace.

Yuguda, in an interview with the BBC Hausa yesterday, said the incident was prearranged to tarnish his repute before President Jonathan.

"I am sure and let the world know that the people who did this thing were PDP members and those politicians in Abuja were the ones behind it; they were not APC members.

"They found these youths on the road and gave them brooms and they instructed them that when the president was passing they should raise the brooms and pelt them at him.

"They did that so that the president would think that Isa Yuguda is against him. They have been telling him in Abuja that we are not supporting him. They did that to show the president that Isa Yuguda is nothing in Bauchi, to show that despite being an indigene of Bauchi, Isa Yuguda could not be respected with his guests in Bauchi," he said.

"We were not aware of the plan ahead of the rally. They took us by surprise. Did you ever hear of such a disgrace to any guest in Bauchi, let alone the president?" he asked.

Asked whether he also knew those behind the burning of the APC office in the state, he said, "I do not know who burnt the APC office in Bauchi. All I know is that these youths were recruited."

Meanwhile, the APC presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari, has asked President Jonathan's campaign council and the PDP to apologize for accusing the APC of being behind the attack.

In a statement, the Director-General of the Buhari campaign, Mallam Garba Shehu, said the admission by Yuguda that the incident was engineered by PDP members had absolved the APC and its presidential candidate of any blames.

"It has always been said that the incidents that have manifested themselves in the electioneering process were act of the PDP on PDP violence, arising from their mismanaged primaries. Governor Yuguda’s admission is a confirmation of the position of our party and our candidate that they have no hand whatsoever in these dastardly attacks.

"Now that Yuguda has admitted that these attacks were hatched and executed by fellow PDP members, we demand an immediate retraction and apology from the Senate President David Mark; the Political Adviser to the President, Professor Alkali; the PDP leadership and their presidential campaign council, who have unjustly made our party and its presidential candidate their whipping boys over this unfortunate incident. We commend Isa Yuguda’s candour expressed through this open admission," it said.