The District Head of Bodor in Funakaye Local Government Area of Gombe state, Alhaji Saleh Tinka, has alleged that the local government Chairman, Mohammed Ribadu, assaulted him with thugs during last Saturday governorship and House of Assembly elections in the area.
Addressing a press conference in Gombe on Tuesday, Tinka alleged that the council boss, alongside a prominent son of the area and a former member, representing Gombe-Kwami-Funakaye Constituency at the House of Representatives, Abubakar Bidi, assaulted him at Bodor, where he went to cast his vote.
He said, “I was at the polling unit to cast my vote, when someone drew my attention to what was happening at the polling unit, when a particular individual came with seven different Permanent Voter Cards, seeking accreditation. I immediately said that could not happen because it was wrong to do so. I reminded him that the law permits only one PVC per individual.”
Tinka said a loyalist of the LG Chairman secretly called his boss on the telephone and on arriving the scene, Ribadu charged at him (the District Head), grabbed him by the neck, tearing his cloth in the process.
“The Local Government Chairman came with some thugs and Abubakar Bidi. They all mobilised to push me into a vehicle they came with but I resisted. Only God knows where they wanted to take me to and what they could have done to me had they succeed in taking me away,” he said.
He alleged that the thugs that came to whisk him away were carrying guns and other dangerous weapons, adding that they beat him mercilessly and disgraced him before his subjects.
He however said the matter had yet to be reported to the Police but was consulting with his subjects to know the next line of action.
When contacted, Ribadu denied the allegation, explaining that when he was going round the polling units in his domain, he stumbled on a noisy crowd at one of the units at Bodor.
Upon enquiry, he said he was told that the District Head was fomenting trouble.
“When I saw the District Head, I asked if he had cast his vote, he answered ‘yes’. So I offered to take him home in my car but he declined. I was only trying to help prevent trouble in my capacity as the Chief Security Officer of the local government,” Ribadu said.
On his part, Bidi declined to speak when contacted on the telephone by journalists. He insisted that they should wait for him at the Gombe State Government House.
