‘Dankwambo’s political modesty shouldn’t be abused by opposition’

Dahiru Hassan Kera is the Vice Chairman (North-East) of a political pressure group, Northern Youths Grand Alliance. In this interview with David Hassan, he stated why Gombe people will vote out the All Progressives Congress (APC), in the forthcoming elections.

Recently, there were news circulating that some thugs attacked the convoy of Gov. Dankwambo in Kashere what is your reaction to that?

Though, I don’t want to comment much on the issue since the matter is under investigation, but I am now compelled to react because some politicians want to use the situation simply to achieve political sympathy. It’s true some thugs who were allegedly assigned by the former governor and now a serving senator representing the zone, Sen. Danjuma Goje, an APC leader in the state had attacked a convoy of Gov. Dankwambo who was on a visit to Federal University Kashere in Akko local government. The security attached to the governor’s convoy had successfully repelled the attack and equally made some arrest while investigation is ongoing to unveil the attackers, their motives and sponsors. Therefore, his modesty in politics should not be abused in whatever sense and the attack is condemnable.

But APC, through its National Publicity Secretary, has accused the governor of arresting Goje’s relatives and destruction of its properties?

Where was Lai Mohammed when the whole things happened? You see, as I’ve said before, they want to create unnecessary confusion and to suppress the investigation. They all know the kind of tyrannical governance enjoyed by the former administration of Goje in Gombe State that was characterized by political intimidation, intolerance, alleged assassinations and financial mismanagement that led to his on-going trail by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and several petitions on politically motivated killings among many other issues.

Let me tell you, people like Gen. Muhammad Buhari, Alh. Atiku Abubakar, Mal. Murtala Aliyu and Hon. Khamisu Ahmed Mailantarki were some of the people to testify on the political intolerance and thuggery of Goje’s despotic regime.

Buhari, who was then an ANPP presidential candidate 2011, was denied landing at the Gombe State airport and Pantami stadium, the proposed venue of his campaign event, was equally sealed; while Alh. Atiku Abubakar was denied entrance to Gombe, all by Goje during his rein in the state.

Mal. Murtala Aliyu, who was then a serving minister of power, was also pulled down from a podium during a political lecture while Hon. Mailantarki had on several occasions accused Goje of threatening his life during his contest in 2011; does all these represent the quality and character that APC ought defend in the court of public opinion because he has pitched tent with their party? While Goje resorted to pro-thuggery politicking, Dankwambo has toed the line of decency in politics.

Your party (PDP) and the APC has recently concluded their primary elections and the national convention, preparatory to the upcoming general elections; how prepared are you to face the challenges?

All things being equal, the election is by the corner and as far as I am concerned we, in the PDP, we’re putting things in order to face the election. For the opposition, I can’t say; because I don’t know the level of their preparation and whoever they field as their candidate, we’re ready to face him at whatever level and I can boldly tell you that we are going to win all our elections.

Gov. Dankwambo is going to face a very tough opposition in the APC; does that threaten his re-election bid?

I don’t know how you define ‘tough’ in your dictionary; but to me, in whatever definition, either connotative or denotative, I don’t take the APC’s candidate as an issue to Dankwambo’s success. Down memory lane, Inuwa Yahaya happened to be one of the contenders that showed interest of contesting the gubernatorial election in 2011 and under the same umbrella of the PDP, but Gov. Dankwambo successfully won the party’s primary election with a very wider gap and the people of Gombe State gave him block votes in the general election to emerge winner. How can you expect someone that could not overweigh Dankwambo on the scale of party delegates in 2011 to contest a general election with him? Because if we agreed that Inuwa has been sieved out by only the PDP delegates in 2011, the general people of Gombe will definitely edge him out, come 2015.