Some thugs in Gombe state have attacked Abdullahi Mohammed, a former Special Assistant on Security Matters to Governor Hassan Dankwambo.

Mr. Mohammed told PREMIUM TIMES that he was attacked Saturday by a three-man gang at a car wash spot on the outskirts of Gombe metropolis.

He suspected the attackers to be supporters of the state governor.

“I was attacked by a group of hoodlums numbering three who accosted me at a car wash near Buba Shongo along Bauchi road in Gombe,” Mr. Mohammed said.

“While they were hitting me, one of them was shouting on top of his voice saying, “Why must you antagonize the Governor (Dankwambo)”. It was then I realized their mission! They drove in a car with registration number BLG 142 AA.”

Mr. Mohammed recently tore his PDP membership card and defected to the opposition All Progressives Congress.

He said his decision to defect was due to the lack of internal democracy in the fold.

In an email to PREMIUM TIMES after the incident, Mr. Mohammed accused Mr. Dankwambo of plotting to assassinate him, saying such attacks could not frighten or force him to rescind his decision.

“If I have to pay the supreme price for my people to gain succour, so be it,” he said. “I decamped to the APC and there is no going back.
“If his Excellency feels killing me is what will return him to office come April 11, the masses will decide his fate even after my demise,” he said.

No time for likes of Mohammed

When contacted, the spokesperson of Governor Dankwambo, Junaidu Abubakar, said Governor Dankwambo cannot stoop low to order an attack on one of his own.

Mr. Abubakar said everyone who interacts with the governor knows that he abhors violence and maintains peaceful disposition to his politicking.

The governors spokesperson said only the APC is synonymous with violence in the state and that thugs belonging to the party may have carried out the attack.

“The allegations are baseless and unfounded. The APC in Gombe state are synonymous with thuggery. Governor Dankwambo is a man who never believes in political thuggery and the world can attest to that
He does not even know that Abdullahi Mohammed has decamped to the APC not to talk of ordering an attack on him,” he said.

He said it was in a bid to fight political thuggery in the state that the governor banned the Kalare group and rehabilitated those of them who renounce violence.

The governor’s spokesperson also accused APC leaders of still retaining the sevice of some of the thugs who he said are being used to unleash violence on the citizenry.

“The world knows that the APC leader in Gombe state Danjuma Goje is also the leader of Kalare group,” Mr. Abubakar said.

“They have killed over 200 people while he was the governor, but Governor Dankwambo cannot even hurt a fly.”