The chairman of the Kano Chapter of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), Alhaji Umar Haruna Doguwa, called on President Muhammad Buhari, the National Security Adviser (NSA), Major General Babagana Munguno, and the international community to intervene immediately over the alleged siege by the DSS at their campaign directorates just three days before general elections.
Haruna Doguwa, speaking to reporters in Kano, stated that the NNPP would never be intimidated.
Doguwa warned that “the DSS must not cheapen itself and be abused by Mr. Ganduje’s administration.”
He revealed that a text of the news conference was similarly copied to President Buhari, NSA, defence minister, Director General DSS and inspector General of Police.
According to him the text was also copied to European Union Election observation mission, British High Commission in Nigeria and United States embassy in Nigeria saying DSS must desist from intimidating, harassing and framing their members.
The text of the conference reads in part : “Today, Wednesday 22nd February, 2023, three days to the general elections, men of the Department of State Security, DSS, in Kano have laid siege on the Campaign Office of the NNPP. The office of the directors of Support Groups and that of the director of Youth Mobilization were cordoned by men of the DSS. We wish to state categorically that our party will never be intimidated. The DSS must not cheapen itself and be misused by the discredited administration of Mr. Ganduje.”
“Laying seige on our offices and threatening the safety and security of our campaign directors and campaign staff will not be accepted.
We are horrified to note that the men of the DSS were brazenly bringing weapons from their vehicles and putting them in the offices of our directors. This was done in the presence of our campaign staff, who also recorded the incidence on video. We have pictures and video evidence of this flagrant setup.”
“We write to draw the attention of the Director General of the DSS to call his Command in Kano to order. Going to our offices to plant weapons with the intention of framing our campaign directors can neither change the result of the election nor can it change the mind of millions of our supporters.”
“DSS must desist from intimidating, harassing and framing our members.”
“We have not forgotten that few weeks ago, the wife of the DG of DSS who incidentally is from Kano State was openly and pompously raking that “they will never allow the NNPP to win in Kano”. Is the siege of our offices and the attempt to plant weapons in our offices part of the plan blurted by the wife of the DG to stop NNPP from winning?”
“Let it be known that the threat made by the wife of the DSS DG and today’s evil action of condoning our offices and planting weapons are not mere coincidences. They are products of conspiracies that between the Ganduje Administration and the Kano DSS command.”
“The complicity of the Kano director of the DSS in all these must not be overlooked. The director, who ought to retire almost a year ago, was retained on the request of Mr Ganduje because they believed that they have fully compromised him. We have not forgotten how this same director was used in 2019 to subvert the will of Kano people and stole the gubernatorial election victory from us. Let it be known that we will never accept the repeat of 2019 in 2023.”
“Astonishingly, now that vote buying opportunity has been blocked to a significant extent, intelligence reaching us showed that the State Government is conniving with other security agencies to harass and intimidate peaceful voters. This, will also be vehemently resisted by the patriotic Kano people.”
“With this unfortunate incidence, we call on President Muhammadu Buhari GCFR, the international community and all credible election observers to beam their search light on senior security personnel operating in Kano to checkmate the evil plan against 2023 general in the State.”
Independent
