Bauchi Lawmaker Alleges Threat to Her Life
Segun Awofadeji
Member representing Dass constituency in the Bauchi State House of Assembly, Hon Maryam Garba Bagel, has raised the alarm over alleged threat to her life by yet-to-be identified persons for what she described as her hard political stance in the state.
Bagel who briefed journalists about the threat in her house yesterday narrated that “late last Monday evening after I came back from my sister’s house for Iftah preparatory to the Eid-el Kabir celebration, I was called by an unknown mobile number intimating me of an envelope dropped for me at home.”
She continued: “When I called my security details for the envelope, what I found therein shocked me as it contained phonographic pictures and some other pictures of me got from my Facebook account but were well photo-shopped to depict immoral postures and concocted conversations by an unidentified respondent.”
The politician, who recently contested and lost the Bauchi South senatorial by-election on the platform of Social Democratic Party (SDP), added that at about 11p.m. on the same Monday, the number called her again and threatened to deal with her unless she stopped her antagonistic tendency towards the Bauchi State Government led by the Governor Mohammed Abubakar.
She further stated that “when I told the person to go ahead and do his worst, he then resorted to sending messages and pictures to me on WhatsApp, boasting that they have all it takes to run me down politically, and if care is not taken, terminate my life unless I subject myself to the leadership of the state government and the governor.”
According to her, “The caller added that I have remained a thorn in their flesh, and that I have been outspoken, always countering the state government to the extent that I have earned for myself the nickname, ‘redneck’. I should be ready to face the consequences of my hard political stance any moment from now unless I toe the line of subjugation.”
The lawmaker, who has defected from the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the wake of the recent Bauchi South senatorial byelection, said similar message was sent to her husband, a development she said has unsettled her household even though she declared that she is unperturbed about the threat.
Bagel added that “the caller said I should take note that as a woman, I am in the wrong place in politics, I should go back to the kitchen where I belong and allow men to play politics, threatening to send the pictures to the Emir of Dass and others in the state.”
While calling on the state Police Command and other security agencies in the state to rise up to protect her from the threat having reported the matter to them, she declared that “I am not afraid of them or their sponsors, I have confidence and believe in Allah that no harm will befall me.”