Gombe State Police Command has confirmed that no fewer than nine people lost their lives in Dukku and Nafada Local Government Areas of the state on Saturday, when suspected Boko Haram members attacked some polling units in the two areas, during the accreditation of voters for the Saturday election.
Spokesperson for the command, Fwaje Atajiri, told newsmen that the gunmen stormed Birin-Fulani and Shole polling units of Nafada Local Government Area at about 9am where three people were killed.
He said, “They later proceeded to nearby Dukku Local Government, where a member of the Gombe State House of Assembly, Umaru Aminu, also known as Maimasallaci was killed with four others and the Police station in the town was torched.”
The determined voters however reportedly went back to cast their votes after the insurgents’ attack.
Commenting on the matter, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Inuwa Yahaya, condemned the attacks and sympathised with the families of those who lost their relatives.
“I want the International community to take note of this sad incident. After six weeks postponement of the polls, the security of voters in the affected areas could not be guaranteed,” Yahaya lamented.
Meanwhile, the Gombe State Commissioner for Women Affairs, Saadatu Mustapha, narrowly escaped being lynched by a mob at Dogoruwa village of Kaltungo LGA of the state.
The suspected thugs approached the commissioner as soon as she stepped down from her vehicle chanting, “Sai Buhari-Sai Buhari” literarily meaning “Only Buhari-Only Buhari.”
She was in the area to monitor the election, because she hailed from Kaltungo and decided to go round all the wards in her local government area.
Agency report
