APC, PDP Supporters' Clash Claims Four Lives In Nasarawa

A clash between supporters of the All Progressives Congress, APC, and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has allegedly left four persons dead and one in critical condition in Daddere town of Obi local government area in Nasarawa State.

According to Leadership report, trouble started on Monday, 18 August, 2014 when PDP supporters in the area took to the streets to welcome the member representing their constituency in the state Assembly, Hon Sidi Bako, who with other PDP members absconded from their constituencies from the start of the ongoing impeachment saga against Governor Umaru Tanko Al-Makura of Nasarawa state.

It was gathered that the move did not go down well with APC supporters who were said to have made efforts to frustrate the rousing welcome given to the PDP lawmaker.

Trouble was said to have ensued because  of the opposition showed by the APC supporters, , leaving a PDP member with a severe cut on the arm who was immediately rushed to Sandaji Hospital in Lafia for treatment.

A source informed newsmen that men of the Joint Task Force, JTF, were deployed to the area to curb the crisis and prevent further escalation of the violence.

It was gathered from a reliable source in the area, who did not want his name in print, that he presence of soldiers and armed police officers drafted to keep peace in the area prevented the PDP supporters from taking revenge.

However, what started like a political feud, took an ethnic dimension on Tuesday, 19 August, 2014 as Eggon youths who could not avenge the injury inflicted on one of their kinsmen allegedly by a Gwandara youth on Monday reportedly took the vengeance to the farms where they killed four Gwandara indegenes on their farms.

While commenting on the crisis, a resident of the area, Mallam Shuaibu Abubakar, denied claims that the crisis has any ethnic undertone, insisting that those killed were APC supporters, the party of Governor Al-Makura who is also a Gwandara man.

Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Ismaila Numan, confirmed the incident when contacted, saying the police have recovered four corpses while one is in critical condition.

Numan added that the situation in the area has been contained as the JTF have expanded the scope of their vigilance.

However, when newsmen visited Gwandara community, residents were seen evacuating the area to Lafia, the state capital, for fear of escalation of the violence despite heavy security presence.

It would be recalled that Nasarawa state has been in the news for weeks over the impeachment move embarked upon by PDP led members of the state House of Assembly.

Governor Al-Makura’s party, the APC had on Sunday, 17 August, 2014 condemned the renewed plan by the Assembly to impeach the governor, saying the state lawmakers were bent on thumbing their nose at the Constitution in their desperation to remove  Al-Makura

Only on Tuesday, the lawmakers alleged that Governor Al-Makura spent N1bn to lobby some prominent politicians to save him from the impeachment move by the House.