Police debunk attack claims by PDP, Atiku on witnesses

Doosuur Iwambe, Abuja

The Zamfara state Police Command has refuted allegations of bandit attacking the witnesses who were billed to testify at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal for the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.

The PDP and Atiku’s lawyers had told the presidential tribunal sitting in Abuja last week that the witnesses that were to testify before it from Zamfara state were attacked on their way to the nation’s capital.

However, the state command while debunking the claim in a statement issued by the Zamfara state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Muhammad Shehu said that there was no recorded attack by bandits either on villages or on any person or group of persons travelling on any highway within the state.

Atiku’s lawyers had said the witnesses were attacked while travelling to Abuja to testify against the election of President Muhammadu Buhari.

Shehu, in the statement explained that “it is pertinent to categorically state that as far as the crime statistics of Zamfara state is concerned, there was no attack by bandits either on villages or on any person or group of persons travelling on any highway in the state.

“Since the inception of the ongoing peace and dialogue initiative in the state, attacks, kidnapping and other heinous crime in the state have been reduced drastically to about 98 per cent, a situation that has restored peace and stability in the state.”

According to him, unprecedented achievements have been recorded through the rescue of over 100 persons kidnapped and held in captivity for months through the initiatives of the state Commissioner of Police, Usman Nagogo.

“Therefore, the command wishes to refute the entire story as misleading and a calculated attempt to undermine the current efforts of both the state government and the police to bring lasting peace for social and economic development in the state,” the statement added.

The command appealed to media organisations to verify their information before publication.