How youth held Joshua Lidani hostage for 4 hours ...I only discussed with the youth – Senator
Angry youth yesterday held the Chairman of the Senate committee on Drugs and Narcotics, Joshua Lidani (PDP, Gombe South) hostage for about four hours at Talasse town, headquarters of Balanga Local Government Area of Gombe State.
The youth numbering hundreds held up the lawmaker between 8.am and 1.pm at the palace of a traditional ruler in the community.
Lidani was prevented from leaving the traditional ruler’s Palace, Bala Waja, Alhaji Danjuma Mohammed until a detachment of soldiers came to his rescue.
It was gathered that soldiers came after a team of policemen couldn’t disperse the youth.
A resident said Lidani visited the town to supervise a building project he awarded at the Community College of Arabic and Islamic Studies, Talasse.
He said the youth accused him of abandoning them, therefore demanded him to accounts for his stewardship for the seven years he had spent at the Senate.
“The mammoth crowds stormed the palace at about 8am, when they learnt that Senator Lidani was in town. They have been waiting for him to come and explain what he was doing for them for the past seven years he was at the Senate.
“They hurled stones on his convoy and later laid siege at the Bala Waja’s palace, where he was seeking refuge, waiting for him to come out and answer their questions” he said.
Another resident of the town told our correspondent on phone that, a combined team of soldiers and mobile policemen had to be mobilised to the town before the senator was freed from the palace to safety.
In a phone interview, the state Commissioner of Police, Mr Tairu Shina Olukolu, confirmed the incident.
He said, “Senator Joshua Lidani was at the Bala Waja’s palace to felicitate the royal father, when some youths who alleged that they are unsatisfied with his representation, barricaded the palace and denied him exit demanding explanation from him on his stewardship at the Senate.
“To avoid break down of law and order, security operatives were dispatch to the palace and they have successfully escort him out of the town unhurt.”
Contacted, Lidani denied report that he was held hostage for four hours by the youth. He said he only discussed with the youth for one and a half hour at the palace of their ruler.
In a phone interview, he said trouble started after he inspected one of his constituency projects in the community.
“After inspecting the school project, the principal and the PTA members were very happy. They thank me for the project. As I was heading to the palace of the chief of the area, then some youth came.
“They followed me to the palace, it was while we were there that some of them started shouting, that I should give them money. They said that they have many temples.
“I asked them to get me their list and send two representatives of each of the temples so that we can discuss. But they couldn’t agree and that was how the confusion started,” he said.
Lidani said when the police came they couldn’t handle the situation, “because they came unprepared. It was afterward that a detachment of the Army came and they ask me to follow them and I did.”