By Emmanuel Oloniruha
The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential Campaign Council Thursday expressed surprise that Borno State Police Command could debunk attack on Atiku Campaign trail on Wednesday in Maiduguri.
The PDP Council’s director of strategic communication, Dele Momodu, said: …”even when a journalist was also injured during the process”, the police still debunked it.
The PDP Council said it was compiling evidence to lodge formal complaint to security agencies on recent attacks on the party’s campaigns in Kaduna and Borno states.
PDP’s Momodu told newsmen on Thursday in Abuja, that the party was worried by frequent attacks on its campaign trail.
Momodu said that the campaign council would also be reporting the ugly incidents to the National Peace Committee under the leadership of retired Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar.
“On Wednesday, we were attacked in Borno. We’ve been attacked in Kaduna.
“It is so unfortunate because there was a peace accord that was signed by most of the presidential candidates.
“We plan to report formally to security authorities; we plan to report to the Peace Committee because democracy is not by force, it is a game of choice.
“So, if I choose to support my candidate, there shouldn’t be any problem about that. Firing Dane guns; throwing stones and all manner of weapons is a very unfortunate development,’’ he said.
He expressed surprise that the police debunked the Wednesday attack on PDP campaign trail in Maiduguri, even when a journalist was also injured during the process.
“My heart goes out to one of our colleagues, Ms Mary Chinda of Arise News TV who sustained injury.
“In fact, I have just seen an x-ray of her arms. I hope nothing serious happened to her because she fell in the process of that attack on Wednesday,’’ Momodu said.
He added that it was obvious the attack was launched on PDP campaign because other political parties had seen that its candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar was leading and ready to win the 2023 presidential election.
“You can see that we have done four states already and all the four states recorded resounding successes.
“We shall continue to campaign in every part of Nigeria for PDP. It’s a carnival of ideas. It is not a carnival of war.
“We shall continue to campaign vigorously, rigorously. Any candidate who can match that should also go ahead and do his own,’’ he stressed.
Momodu also expressed confidence that the crisis within the party would be resolved soon.
“I am sure most of you must have heard that our governors, the integrity group, said on Wednesday that the window of reconciliation has not been shut permanently.
“We’ve been at it for some time trying to see how we can bring everybody under the same umbrella.
“Hopefully, in the next couple of days and weeks, all of us will be able to work as one family.
“PDP is the biggest political family in Africa and we want it to remain so,’’ Momodu said.
(NAN)
