The Senate President Bukola Saraki, has alerted the world that his life and that of his family as well as his supporters are under threat, even as he has said that the Inspector General of Police, IGP Ibrahim Idris, should be held if responsible if anything happens to him.
Addressing an emergency press conference at PPCO campaign headquarters in Abuja on Friday, Saraki, who is also director general PPCO said that, “Security agencies are giving cover to
people who are unleashing violence on our people because they are surprised and cannot understand how and why the people continue to give massive and overwhelming support to PDP across the state.
“Yesterday, after the APC concluded their campaigns in Ilorin, some of their supporters and thugs moved around town and in areas like Adewole/Adeta, Ile Otan and Ubandawaki/Pakata where they saw our people gathered holding their weekly ward meeetings, they disrupted the meetings by shouting their party slogan and when our people responded by mentioning our own slogan, they fired gun shots into their midst in Adewole/Adeta. They also inflicted matchete cuts on some of them. As a result of this attack, two people suffered bullet wounds.
“Also yesterday, these same APC thugs shielded by policemen went to my family quarters in Agbaji, Ilorin, and vandalised houses, shops and inflicted wounds using matchete on three people. All these destructions took place in the presence of policemen who came with them but watched without any care, as the thugs and supporters unleashed violence on our people.
“IGP has posted three different Commissioners of Police to Kwara state in the last six months. In fact, the previous and current CP got strict instructions from the IGP not to relate or engage with the Senate president. The usual practice has been that the CP personally ensures the security of the Senate president whenever he visits his home state. That was the practice during the period of my predecessor and in my first year in office. We need to make it clear to the entire world that now that ward to ward campaigns is about to begin in the state and I am set to participate in that grassroots campaign as I have always done, nobody is sure what instructions Mr. Idris has given to the police command in the state. Thus, the entire world should hold the IGP responsible if anything untoward happens to members of my family and myself”.
In a swift response, the Nigreia Police has debunked the senate president’s claims in a press statement by Force spokesperson, Moshood Jimoh, stating that: “The Nigeria Police Force wishes to categorically state that all the allegations in the statement of the Senate president are incorrect, misleading and false and should be disregarded and discountenanced by the general public. “The Nigeria Police Force did not give any protection to any political thug or shield any APC thug to go to family quarters of the Senate president in Agbaji, Ilorin to vandalise houses, shops and inflict wounds with machete on three (3) people as claimed by the Senate president. The police did not receive any complaint or report of gunshot and wound as claimed by the Senate president in other areas he mentioned such as Adewole/Adeta, Ile-otan and ubandawaki/pakata,” the statement said.
