Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State has said that they cannot fold their hands and watch innocent citizens being killed and kidnapped every day without doing the needful.
He, therefore, called on Nigerians to come out en masse to sack the ruling All Progressives Party, APC, at the national level so as to end insecurity in the country.
Governor Mohammed, who is also a Presidential aspirant of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, said insecurity in the country will definitely vanish as soon as PDP takes over power in 2023.
Speaking when he paid a Sallah homage to Senator Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi in Kaduna, the Governor said the only way to end the senseless insecurity going on in the country is to kick the ruling party out of power.
He said “have you ever seen this kind of ugly situation we are facing in this country under the leadership of PDP? We ruled for 16 years without witnessing this kind of ugly trend bedevilling our country.”
“We cannot fold our hands and watch our innocent citizens being killed and kidnapped every day without doing the needful, enough is enough.”
“All of us are witness to what is happening in this country, and that is why we are now presenting ourselves so that we can rescue the situation from the arrogant, insolence, inefficient display by the ruling party.”
“For example, were you not in Kaduna during the tenure of Senator Makarfi as governor of Kaduna state? There was no religious violence, there was no insecurity.”
“Look at what we are doing in Bauchi. We are monitoring and carrying out evaluation on security matters to make sure that lives and property are secured.”
“We are frequently engaging with the communities as well as our respected traditional institutions and stakeholders.”
“All the above are completely absent in this APC led government. These are some of the issues causing all these insecurities including the agitations in other zones”.
Speaking on the forthcoming presidential convention of his party, he said, “don’t forget we led this country for sixteen years. If you look at the previous conventions, we have always come out intact.”
“This is because is it not about individual aspirations, what we want to see as presidential aspirants and delegates is to have a credible, acceptable and transparent primaries.”
“And we are ready to work with whoever emerges other than being selfish. So more than ever before the current PDP leadership has allowed each of the candidates to go out and canvass for votes.”
“This is what we have been doing but we have the firm belief that at the end of the day, one person must emerge as the flag bearer of our great party and whoever emerges, if it is not me, am ready to support him.”
He explained that his visit to Kaduna was that as Muslims in the first week of Shawwal, they usually go out and greet their brothers and those they have respect for.
His words: “Senator Makarfi is one of our leaders who has touched my life and he is somebody, I respect so much. His pedigree, his antecedents in the Senate, even in governance, is unparalleled.”
“So I am in Kaduna to say Barka da Sallah and to wish him well and of course to tell him that his brother in Bauchi is thinking of him, in goodwill and in the fraternity.”
“We are looking up to Senator Makarfi as a major stakeholder in our great party to ensure that the party comes out of the convention intact.”
“We want to see justice and equity irrespective of my personal aspiration as a presidential candidate. So I know he will do the right thing”, he said.