The political mechanization against the 2019 gubernatorial exercise in Bauchi appears to continue to hold the state governor in gripping paranoia. This according to information recently gathered by 247ureports.com through a consortium of sources indicating that the All Progressive Congress [APC] governor of the State had begun utilizing the various security apparatus in the State to launch intimidation campaign against all perceived political opposition and perceived future political opponents.
Loading ...Following the embarrassing leak of an internal document authored by the Governor’s men on the roadmap to 2019 re-election campaign – as published here – Paranoid Bauchi Gov Begins 2019 Campaign, Secret Memo To Sack Deputy Gov, Senators & Others, the governor who was on a sightseeing trip to China with his close friends and associates – launched an anger based attacks on his close party affliates who he he accused of having leaked the documents to 247ureports.com. In a kneejerk fashion, the security apparatus launched a sweeping arrests of APC officials in Bauchi State.
According to an insider in the Bauchi political goings-on, Alyasa’a Hassan, the Bauchi Governor ordered the arrests and detention of APC deputy chairman, Hon. Shuaibu Rahama, the treasurer, Hon. Harsanu Yunusa Guyaba. The arrest was affected on August 14, 2016 – two days after the release of the secret document. They were arrested by the Crime Investigation Division of the Police department.
In addition to the arrests of the party officials, the Governor was reported to have issued orders for the arrest and detention of select social media influencers who commented or shared the secret documents on Facebook. According to Isah Abuh Yousouf, “Arrest warrant for the arrest of Isah Abuh Yousouf and Musa Azare is granted by one of the Magistrate Courts in Bauchi”. Defending and/or confirming the alleged order of arrest was the Governor’s personal lawyer, Ishaq Hussaini Magaji – he added that “reproduction of a crime is also a crime”. He went on to cite Section 24 of Cyber Crime Prohibition and Prevention Act 2015 – which states that “the offense is committed by a person who knowingly or intentionally sends a message or other by means of computer systems or other network that he knows to be false, for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience danger, obstruction, insult, injury, criminal intimidation, ill will or needless anxiety to another or causes such message to be sent is cyber stalking”. The lawyer indicated the guilty party could be sentenced to 3years imprisonment and/or a fine of not more than N700,000.
The uneasiness within the government quarters has as a result given birth to the formation of a splinter group within the APC. A new APC faction emerged in response to the many disagreements between the government and the party faithfuls. And in the light of the recent developments, the governor was reported to have influenced the arrest of the factional chairman [Garkuwan Ajiya] by the DSS. According to a source within the DSS, the factional chairman was arrested not in the connection with the leaked BauchiPapers. “He was invited, interviewed and released the same day”. Further inquiry into why he was invited by the DSS uncovered that “he was invited after he did a phone in radio program on his new APC and the sad developments in the state”.
