Juliet Buna
The Presidency on Tuesday said that Monday’s report on attack on the convoy of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), in Kano State was sponsored by politicians and terrorists.
In a statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, the presidency also accused the opposition Peoples Democratic Party of allegedly latching onto “fake reports” about the stoning of the President’s convoy in Kano.
Shehu argued that the mob spotted in a widely circulated video footage were “innocent children sponsored by politicians and terrorist sympathisers.”
Late on Monday, the PDP condemned the attack on the President in Kano, saying the attack was allegedly sponsored by the presidential candidate of the APC, Bola Tinubu.
However, the presidency disagreed with the opposition party’s stance,
“The divisive rhetoric of an opposition in a futile attempt to malign the image of the President and the candidates of the All Progressives Congress in the coming elections, and its desperate wedge-driving activities to cause a division between the party and the government is not what will give them victory.
“A so-called leading opposition party that controls 14 states, going into elections with eight or nine of the states in tow should look inwards to see why their campaign is flagging and destined to fail. Their defeat is a foretold story by many discerning individuals,” the statement read.
According to the Presidency, facts from the law enforcement agencies speak of a clash in Hotoro between the local road transport authorities, the Kano Road Transport Authority and thugs hired by a yet-to-be-identified group that took place when the President was being treated to a banquet at the Government House, long after he had finished his projects inauguration.
The Presidency also urged religious and political leaders to steer the youth from the path of violence, adding that Buhari has not lost respect in Kano.
Meanwhile, a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Chief Olu Falae, also condemned the attack on the president’s convoy.
Falae who spoke at an event in Akure, the Ondo State capital, on Tuesday, said it was an uncivilised act to stone a president’s convoy, describing it as unfortunate.
He said, “It is most unfortunate, and nothing justifies people stoning their President. It is the height of incivility.
“Yes, people are angry about certain things, but as a civilised society in a democracy, we operate within the law. Stoning a President is not legal, not right, and not civilised. It must be condemned.”
Also, the ruling All Progressives Congress has called on law enforcement agencies to pick up concerned officials of the Peoples Democratic Party for questioning over the attack.
The party, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, on Tuesday, said the statement issued by the PDP on the visit “is nothing short of a confessional statement of conspiracy to commit treasonable felony.
“By actively instigating and sponsoring fringe violent anti-social conduct by paid urchins during presidential engagements in Kano, the PDP has crossed the line of fair campaign engagement into grievous culpable criminality.
This is unacceptable and demands urgent law enforcement investigation and prosecution of all participants in this high crime.”