The presidential election campaign in Nigerian took an ugly turn yesterday when Sule Lamido, Jigawa state governor, called for the abduction of leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as a way to break the party.
“Kidnap two people in the party and the part is finished” Lamido spoke as People’s Democratic Party (PDP) governors took turns yesterday in Lagos to tell Nigerians why they should re-elect President Goodluck Jonathan
Lamido who was on national television like his counterpart PDP governors: Chief Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom); Dr. Olusegun Mimiko (Ondo); Mr. Bala James Ngilari (Adamawa); Dr. Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu (Niger); Chief Jonah Jang (Plateau); Mr. Ayodele Fayose (Ekiti); and Senator Liyel Imoke (Cross River), described APC as a party that thrives on deceit and fraud.
In a reaction to Lamido’s statement, Shehu Garba, APC Presidential Campaign Organisation spokesman, asked Governor Lamido of Jigawa State to refrain from making such utterances against APC leaders in the name of politics.
Shehu, said he rather hoped that Lamido was joking just as Haram was a serious issue to joke with.
He said: “As we were preparing for this press conference, some of the PDP Governors were meeting in Lagos and some of the languages that are coming from that place are not particularly pleasant. I want to consider what the governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido said. I feel it is some kind of morbid joke and I hope that it didn’t come from his heart. There was a time when kidnapping was a very serious plaque nationwide.
“I think that it is terribly in bad taste that the governor will stand in the front of the television cameras and announce that to break the APC, all they needed to do was to kidnap two APC leaders and then the party would be broke.
“It is like people are not aware that Nigerians have sensibilities and sensitivities that need to be respected otherwise people shouldn’t just ruffle the emotions of the people of this country.
“For us in the APC presidential campaign, kidnapping is a serious threat to this country and it is not a matter that people should be joking about as it is with Boko haram.
“For our presidential candidate, General Mohammadu Buhari, the key issues are about the security and the lives and property of the people of this country and as you can see from his various speeches, this is a matter he intends to give his all”, Shehu said.