By Umar Salam.
The Zamfara State Police Command has described as untrue and misleading, the reports by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar that the witnesses scheduled to testify at the tribunal on Friday were attacked on their way to Abuja from Zamfara State.
Recall that the counsel to Atiku Abubakar and the PDP, Livy Uzoukwu (SAN) had informed the Presidential Elections Petitions Tribunal at its last sitting on Friday that the second batch of witnesses billed to testify on behalf of the PDP and Atiku were attacked on their way to Abuja from Zamfara.
The Public Relations Officer of the Zamfara Police Command, SP Muhammad Shehu, however, refuted the PDP’s claim, stressing that no such attack was recorded in the state.
He said, “The attention of the command has been drawn over newspaper stories published by some national dailies on Saturday 13 July, 2019, that some witnesses of the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar who were travelling from the state to Abuja have been attacked in the state.
“According to the reports, the witnesses were traveling to Abuja from Zamfara to give witness at Presidential Election Tribunal in Abuja.
“They claimed to have been attacked by bandits in Zamfara State, a situation that forced them to scamper into the bush which forced the court to adjourn sitting.
“As far as the state police command is concerned, the claim is not true and has no basis; we wish to draw the attention of members of the public that the story is not true. Based on the crime statistics available to the command, there was no attack by bandits either on villages or on any person or group of persons traveling on any highway in the state.”