A 13-year-old boy, Bappah Adamu, has died while scrambling for money thrown at crowd near the Bauchi-Maiduguri highway.
The boy was said to have been knocked down by an oncoming vehicle while trying to get money thrown into the crowd by Halliru Jika, the House of Representatives member representing Ganjuwa/Darazo federal constituency.
The incident reportedly occurred at Konkiyel town when the lawmaker was leaving the town after visiting a project site he is executing in the town.
A source in Konkiyel town, Safiyanu Konkiyel, confirmed the incident adding that the lawmaker threw money into the air near the highway and people rushed to pick the Naira notes scattered on the road.
Police in Darazo cannot confirm the incidence when contacted on telephone saying that the matter has not been reported to them.
Speaking to our reporter on telephone on the matter, a politician, Nasuru Darazo said that he was aware that the lawmaker visited Darazo, Soro and Konkiyel on Saturday.
He however said that he is aware that the lawmaker was booed in Soro but cannot confirm the death of the 13-year-old boy in Konkiyel town.
“I was in Darazo yesterday because I went to see the work on Dapchari road and I was told that Jika has visited the three places. It is a fact that Jika has a penchant for throwing money into the air anywhere he goes. I was told that he did the same thing in all the three towns,” he said.
In another development, a Transformer donated to Soro town was earlier rejected by people of the town.
According to reports, the people rejected the Transformer donation by the lawmaker because he has not executed any constituency project nor visited the area since he was elected in 2015.
When the lawmaker visited Soro Town on Saturday, he was reportedly booed while pictures of President Muhammadu Buhari and the Special Assistant to Governor Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar on Non-Governmental Organisations ( NGOs) and Social Investment Programmes (SIPs), Mansur Manu Soro, was waved at him.
Mansur Manu Soro is from the town and is reportedly nursing a political ambition to challenge Halliru Jika in 2019.
Jika is said to be one of the people interested in contesting for the APC governorship ticket in 2019 and has allegedly not been on good political terms with Governor Mohammed Abubakar.
In his reaction, Halliru Jika who spoke to our reporter on telephone said that the death of the boy has nothing to do with his visit.
The lawmaker said that the boy was knocked down by a car about an hour after he left Konkiyel town.
“It has nothing to do with us, the incidence happened after we left by about thirty minutes or an hour,” he said.
On the incidence in Soro, the lawmaker said that he spent more than an hour in the town and that there was no incidence and he was not booed.
He described the reports as mischievous targeted at him by political opponents.
Source: Daily Trust
