The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Senator Bala Mohammed, on Monday, said the allegation by the governor of Bauchi State, Mallam Isa Yuguda, that he (minister) was the sponsor of the thugs that attacked the campaign team of President Goodluck Jonathan in Bauchi, last Thursday, was an embarrassing conduct that successfully exposed the governor’s chameleonic character as an All Progressives Congress (APC) mole in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP.)
He said it was simply irrational for the governor to allege that he hired thugs to stone and embarrass himself while addressing the presidential rally in his home state.
The minister, in a statement signed by his media assistant, Nosike Ogbuenyi, called on the governor to respect himself by leaving him alone.
Senator Mohammed noted that by his allegation, Yuguda had proven correct the allegation that he had been hobnobbing with the APC at night and running with the PDP in daytime.
He said the question that the governor must answer quickly without equivocation was: Why did the thugs not stone him (Yuguda) while he was addressing the same rally on the same podium and same day?
“Yuguda should also tell the world why he has suddenly turned into an APC spokesman, by exonerating the opposition party of culpability in the attack of the PDP presidential campaign team in Bauchi,” he said.
According to him, many Nigerians still remember recent media reports that Yuguda was the real godfather and sponsor of the APC governorship candidate in Bauchi State and that he had not been campaigning for President Jonathan’s re-election in the state.
He said: “History is there to expose the governor as an unabashed fifth columnist in the PDP.
“It will be recalled that the first attack Senator Bala Mohammed received for wholeheartedly supporting Dr Jonathan (then vice president) was in 2010. The same Yuguda, early in 2010, did everything humanly possible to recall and politically annihilate Bala Mohammed from the National Assembly as the Senator representing Bauchi South Senatorial District.
“Bala’s only sin was that he mobilised fellow lawmakers to invoke the famous ‘Doctrine of Necessity’ to confer powers on the then vice president, Jonathan to act as president, while former president, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua was away in Saudi Arabia, receiving medical attention.
“The second attack of the FCT Minister by Yuguda came later again in 2010, when he deployed enormous energies into creating all manner of obstacles to block Senator Mohammed’s return and reregistration as a member of the PDP in his native Alkaleri Local Government Area of Bauchi State.
“Again, that attempt was futile, as it failed disastrously for Yuguda. Since then, Senator Mohammed had become a force to reckon with at the highest echelon of the PDP.
“Furthermore, in 2011, political thugs who were protesting the victory of President Jonathan in that year’s presidential election razed a two-storey building belonging to the FCT Minister and nearly killed his mother and other relatives in Bauchi. The thugs torched none of the property of Governor Yuguda.
“The simple reason Senator Mohammed’s house was torched and his relatives traumatised was the unequivocal support and contributions to President Jonathan’s electoral victory.
“On Thursday, January 22, 2015, those who are conversant with the negative trend of Bauchi politics since the Yuguda era were not surprised when the FCT Minister paid another price for supporting President Jonathan.
“Senator Mohammed was stoned and assaulted by political thugs while he was on stage passionately addressing the PDP presidential campaign rally. Those behind the attack on Mohammed clearly are those who do not want his star or that of the President to shine. Unfortunately for them, they are too late on that mission.
