Bauchi Governorship: Ex-Chief of Air Staff Saddique Abubakar Denies Recruiting 1,000 Thugs

Segun Awofadeji

APC governorship candidate in Bauchi, ex-Chief of Air Staff, Saddique Baba Abubakar, has denied the allegation that he is recruiting 1,000 thugs and militants to intimidate his opponents ahead of the 2023 general elections.

“This story is 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 election, owing to the colossal failure of the ruling party to provide the state with purposeful leadership and dividends of democracy in the past three years,” he said in a statement issued by his spokesman on Monday evening.

Abubakar described the statement titled ‘Ex-Chief of Air Staff, Sadique, Ruling APC Recruit ‘1000 Militants, Political Thugs’ Ahead of Bauchi Governorship Election’ as ” a comical political publication trending as news item and published by an online newspaper.”

“To put the records straight,” Abubakar said, “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.”

The statement noted that Shehu Aliyu Musa (Barden Gabas of Bauchi), a member of the association, attended a meeting organised to congratulate him on his emergence as a running mate to ex-chief of air staff with the leadership of the Bauchi State Amalgamated Associations of Butchers, Hunters, Cobblers, Blacksmiths, and Berbers after opening the Associations’ State Secretariat in Bauchi.”

Abubakar explained that, 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.”