My Fate Lies With Bauchi Voters, Not Rejected Politicians Like Yakubu Lame And Bala Jibrin And Their Co-Travelers-Mohammed Abubakar

Angered by the continued verbal attacks by two top politicians who contested but lost the gubernatorial primaries to him, Governor Mohammad Abubakar of Bauchi State has warned the two men that his political fate does not lie with them but voters in the state.

 

Abubakar took exception to the activities of both Alhaji Ibrahim Yakubu Lame and Alhaji Bala Jibrin, who have relentlessly insisted that the direct primaries that produced the governor as the candidate for next year’s election, were rigged and should be cancelled to pave the way for a new one.

 

Governor Abubakar, who spoke through his Special Adviser on Media and Strategy, Ali Ali, said the claim by the two politicians was misplaced as they had failed to accept the reality that they had lost the primaries and could therefore not reverse the wish of the people.

 

Ali said, “Since the APC primaries that held to select candidates that will fly the party’s flag in the 2019 general elections in which Alhaji Ibrahim Yakubu Lame and Alhaji Bala Jibrin lost their bid to take the gubernatorial ticket, the two paper weight politicians have explored and exhausted every opportunity to seek redress to what they called ‘injustice’.

 

“Their last point of call was the Aso Rock Villa where the President pointedly told them to channel their grievances to the appropriate party leadership. Alhaji Lame and Alhaji Jibrin appeared not to be satisfied with that kind of response, because their expectation, which their followers have been drumming up in social media platforms, was for Mr. President to simply take the 2019 Bauchi APC flag and hand over to one of them, particularly Alhaji Bala Jibrin who came distant third in the direct primary election that gave victory to Governor Mohammad Abubakar.

 

“It is not our intention to respond to all the frivolous allegations they made in the text they read to journalists in Abuja mainly because Bauchi State Government under the leadership of Governor M. Abubakar believes in constituted authority. According to existing laws, which the two politicians appear not to respect, candidates duly nominated are submitted to INEC, the nation’s electoral umpire, by the political parties.

 

“In the case of Bauchi State, the gubernatorial candidate that was duly nominated to fly APC’s flag in 2019 is Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar and that has been fully acknowledged by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

 

“For the avoidance of doubt, some of the processes of the 2019 Bauchi gubernatorial primary election were dictated by the two politicians. They were the ones who insisted that the primary election must be direct and Governor Mohammed A. Abubakar agreed against stakeholders’ earlier decision. They also insisted that returning officers in the 20 local government areas in the state must be chairmen of Nigerian Union of Teachers, mainly because of their assumption that teachers were against the re-election bid of Governor Mohammed Abubakar, and the governor also agreed.

 

“But when the results came out and they realized that they were not in touch with the true voter in Bauchi, they resorted to cheap blackmail with the sole aim of rocking the boat.”