The Bauchi State Government has “two unskilled politicians, Alhaji Ibrahim Yakubu Lame and Alhaji Bala Jibrin”, for their unrelenting efforts to upturn the mandate given to Governor Mohammed A. Abubakar to seek re-election next year on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

“Since the APC primaries 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, these two have ran from pillar to post to upturn the popular will of the party faithful. They even went to the Aso Rock Villa where Mr. President pointedly told them to channel their gubernatorial grievances to the appropriate party leadership.

“Alhaji Lame and Alhaji Jibrin appeared not to be satisfied with that kind of response,” the Governor’s Political Adviser, Honourable Kawu Labaran, said on Thursday while responding to claims by the two politicians in a Wednesday press conference in which they claimed that no governorship primaries took place in the state.

Part of the statement reads: “It is not our intention to respond to all the frivolous allegations they made in their address to journalists because Bauchi State Government under the leadership of Governor M. A. Abubakar strongly believes in constituted authority. According to existing laws, which the two kindergarten politicians appear not to have respect for, 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 “direct” primary election must be held even after the state party stakeholders had agreed on delegates’ election and had endorsed Governor Mohammed A. Abubakar and President Muhammadu Buhari. They also insisted that returning officers in the 20 local government areas must be chairmen of Nigerian Union of Teachers. Governor Abubakar also agreed. But when the results came out and they realised that they were not in touch with the voters and party members, they resorted to cheap blackmail with the sole aim of rocking the boat. Their plot has been exposed and ultimately the decision of who occupies the Bauchi Government House is solely that of voter, the common man whose life the administration of Governor M. A. Abubakar has in the last three years touched positively in spite of failed attempts by serial elections losers to distract him.

“Government is not surprised they resort to the gimmicks of 2014 when Lame lost the gubernatorial ticket and left no stone unturned to discredit the incumbent governor WHO EXTENDED THE HANDS of friendship then and even now. That gesture led to the appointment of Alhaji Lame’s major allies and drivers of his campaign organisation were coopted into the M. A. Abubakar campaign council and eventually into cabinet positions in his government. They never wavered even as their former principal fought a proxy legal battle against the election of Governor Abubakar to the Supreme Court.

“Back in 2015, the candidate, Mohammed Abubakar extended hands of friendship to Lame all in his bid to move Bauchi State forward. As governor, he still maintains that anyone having any contribution to the development of Bauchi State, including people who have dissenting viewpoints, are welcome so long as their criticisms are constructive and in the best interest of the state and the common man.”