Mansur Aramide, Gombe
Gombe State government may have started clamping down on perceived notable politicians in the opposition camps.
Our correspondent observed that no fewer than ten people have been secretly arrested and detained in the police custody.
Reliable sources said they would be released only after the Saturday guber and state Assembly elections.
Investigation revealed that about eight supporters of former governor Danjuma Goje now senator representing Gombe Central, were last week picked up by the Directorate of State Service (DSS) and handed over to the police till after Saturday polls.
This was confirmed by over 100 Human Rights lawyers in a press conference in Gombe.
Again, on Wednesday Night, a member of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) state governorship committee (media and publicity), Bello Musa was picked at gunpoint at Lawanti in Akko local government area of the state.
According to findings, Musa in the company of three others returning from Abuja was stopped at Lawanti Army checkpoint for search.
“It was immediately we were cleared to go that we noticed a white car behind us with four people in it.
“Of course, we did not read any meaning until they later crossed us and demanded that we all come down.
“We complied instantly because I noticed they were known police in mufti. They singled me out, collected my phone and took my picture.
“This my picture they sent to someone I didn’t know to confirm I am their target; the response led to my being handcuffed and taken straight to the DSS office,” Musa later narrated to journalists.
According to him, the DSS booked him “for circulating audio of the sitting governor.”
They accompanied him with a note to the police command with instruction that he be kept till after elections.
However, the Commissioner of Police Oqua Etim who apparently couldn’t indict Musa later in the night released him to the PDP governorship candidate, Jibrin Barde.
Barde told newsmen that “the clamp on oppositions are manifestations that Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya has lost grip, he is desperate and dying. He couldn’t even withstand a fair contest.”
He however recalled that he foresaw the happenings: “I have before now written to all security agencies of Inuwa’s secret plots and ploys but none of them has done anything about it.
“This is a first step, the second and deadlier one will be vote buying and intimidation, which was why he ordered the dismantling of security checkpoints for hoodlums to have field day,” he alleged.
Meanwhile, a press statement by the Director General media and publicity to the governor, Ismaila Misilli urged residents to disregard the circulating governor’s audio, describing it as attempt by the oppositions to smear the governor.
