Crowd overwhelms security, forces Tinubu’s rally to abrupt end
The All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential campaign rally in Bauchi State ended abruptly yesterday following a breach of security by the crowd that vandalised the barricade and swarmed Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Stadium, the venue of the event.
Daily Trust gathered that an electric cable connected to the public address system was also damaged, a situation that cut off power supply to the podium as the microphone went off.
The incident forced dignitaries, including President Muhammadu Buhari, to abruptly leave the podium and rush into their vehicles.
The problem started when the Director General of the Tinubu/Shettima Campaign Council and Plateau State Governor, Simon Lalong, was speaking and the microphone went off.
The glitch was later fixed, and the campaign was going smoothly as the president presented the party’s flag to the Bauchi State gubernatorial candidate, retired Air Marshall Sadique Baba Abubakar.
Buhari also raised Abubakar’s hand and that of the presidential candidate of the party, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
At the point Tinubu was dancing on the podium cheered by the crowd, the public address system went off the second time.
Neither the president nor Tinubu was able to speak at the campaign following a breach of security. All the dignitaries were rushed out of the podium as the crowd surged closer to it.
APC to probe system failure
The Bauchi State chapter of the APC has apologised to its teeming supporters for the sound system failure, promising to investigate the incident to guard against its reoccurrence elsewhere.
The publicity secretary of APC in Bauchi, Adamu Jallah, explained that the handlers of the sound system came from Abuja, engaged by the national secretariat of the party in conjunction with the Presidential Campaign
Council (PCC).
He said, “We have achieved our aim; our supporters came out in large numbers. Mr President saw them and knows that Bauchi remains one of his strongholds in the country. We will give the presidential candidate the needed number of votes in millions.”
‘I will address out-of-school children’
Air Marshall Sadique Baba Abubakar promised to address the issue of out-of-school children if elected governor of the state.
He equally promised to empower small and medium enterprises to tackle the rising poverty in the state.
He said, “The rising social vices need a more robust and genuine empowerment programme that will liberate our teeming unemployed youths and women to end poverty and insecurity in Bauchi.”
The APC Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Yakubu Murtala-Ajaka, said the party has put all democratic means in place to unseat Governor Bala Muhammed, urging him to start preparing his handover notes.
Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari has commended Governor Bala Muhammed, who is the PDP governorship candidate, for executing many development projects in his first tenure in the state.
The president spoke yesterday when he paid homage to the Emir of Bauchi, Alhaji (Dr) Rilwanu Adamu, at his palace when he arrived in Bauchi for the APC rally.
The president said, “I think the governor has invested so much in terms of infrastructural development. Although I said earlier that l lost my diary, I think the governor has done well.”