Mob attacks Bauchi Gov – 3 Vehicles in his convey destroyed

Posted by admin Bauchi, State News Thursday, April 7th, 2011

Governor Isa Yuguda of Bauchi State narrowly escaped being mobbed yesterday by irate natives of Bogoro during a visit to the area. While at least three vehicles in his convoy were destroyed in the process.

The governor was on an assessment tour of Tafawa Balewa and Bogoro Local Government areas bedevilled by sectarian crisis since January which left scores dead and property worth millions of naira destroyed.

Yuguda, accompanied by top security chiefs during the tour, visited Bununu, Gital and some villages affected by the crisis where he addressed displaced victims before moving to Bogoro.
Trouble started for the governor who all along had avoided the area during his electioneering campaign tour of the state when his convoy reached Bogoro to address stakeholders on the lingering crisis at the palace of the district head.

Yuguda whose rating has allegedly dropped due to what many described as his poor handling of the crisis in the area, got more than he bargained for as a large angry crowd which gathered at the palace of the district head of Bogoro prevented him from proceeding to the affected villages.
Daily Sun gathered that their grouse was because the governor failed to visit them and commiserate with them when the crisis broke out in January. Rather he gathered stakeholders from the areas and threatened to level the place and relocate Tafawa Balewa town if the inhabitants could not live in peace with one another.

Our correspondent gathered that since the statement made by the governor in January, there had been reprisal attacks between Fulani and Seyawa people of the area with the latter spreading to Bogoro where many villages were burnt and the villagers killed or fled.

An eye-witness close to government circles said following the shouting and confusion building outside the district head’s palace, the governor became jittery and demanded from the security chiefs who accompanied him what was amiss and he was told that a crisis was brewing somewhere in the area.
“The governor then said it was better to leave the area. But the chiefs told him it was better to go there and see what the problem was.

As the governor came out of the district head’s palace, he was confronted by an angry mob which started shouting that they did not want to see the governor. “Before we knew what was happening, they started stoning him and he had to be hurried into his car. The confusion was too much and the convoy had to speed out from the area, but not until three vehicles in his convoy were destroyed by the angry mob.”

Reacting to the incident, the district head of Bogoro, Alhaji Haruna Yakubu described it as an “embarrassment. We have never received an Executive Governor only to be treated this way.”
According to the district head, the governor visited Tafawa Balewa and other villages and there was no problem. He conducted his visit peacefully. On coming here, he was about going out when we heard some women shouting. I asked my subordinate to find out what was the problem but the noise persisted.

Alhaji Yakubu said that it was people from Tafawa Balewa that came to Bogoro to incite the stoning of the governor’s convoy. “We don’t know the reason behind their motives”

-Sunwp_posts