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Buhari’s Kano visit: Protesting youths block roads, stone helicopter

On Monday, during the President's official visit to Kano, some enraged youths hurled stones at the President's advance convoy, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.).

Security has been increased around Kano as the President visited the state to inaugurate eight development projects.

The President landed at the Aminu Kano International Airport in the morning and was helicoptered to the palace of Kano's Emir, Aminu Bayero.

Despite the high security presence on the routes leading to Ahmadu Bello Way, where the President was to launch Galaxy Backbone Limited's project, furious youths carrying sticks and stones allegedly assaulted Buhari's convoy and helicopter as it hovered over them.

The moment the enraged youngsters flung stones at the chopper thought to be carrying the President was captured on video and disseminated on social media.

One video showed locals arguing loudly with unidentifiable security officers as a truck passed in their midst.

Another footage showed a road covered with stones as teargas canisters were fired to disperse the enraged crowd.

Our eyewitness witnessed the protesting adolescents yelling "ba ma yi" (down with you) and running helter-skelter to avoid being apprehended by highly armed security officers protecting the President and his vehicle.

Aside from Hotoro and a few other projects, the President's helicopter landed at the Emir's palace and proceeded to Kumbotso Local Government to launch the 10 megawatt solar power projects.

However, the President's visit to Kumbotso was free of crowd attacks because he was surrounded by security personnel, including highly armed troops aboard motorized Toyota Hilux vehicles and armed mobile police special forces.

In a statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Abba Anwar, Kano State Governor Abdullahi Ganduje recently urged Buhari to postpone his scheduled travel to the state to launch various projects.

Ganduje stated in the statement that the naira redesign and the January 31 deadline for old notes had caused difficulty for state citizens, adding that the situation had enraged them.

"Deeply concerned with the hardship caused by the Central Bank of Nigeria's limited time for halting the use of old naira notes, and for security reasons, Kano State Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje reveals that the state resolved and wrote to the presidency that the president's visit to commission some projects be postponed,"

However, Ganduje, while speaking to journalists after a meeting with Buhari in Katsina, expressed readiness to receive the president to commission the projects in the state.

“We are very much ready to receive him and we have a lot for him to commission, including Federal Government projects and state government projects. They are state-of-the-art projects,” Ganduje said.

Prior to the Ganduje episode, angry youths had attacked government officials when the President visited his home state in Katsina to inaugurate some projects on Thursday.

The youths were said to have staged the protest to express their anger against the hardship being experienced in the country.

The situation reportedly degenerated when the youths started throwing stones, causing a commotion that created tension in the area

PDP PCC

Reacting to the Kano rampage, spokesperson for the Peoples Democratic Party Presidential Campaign Council, Senator Dino Melaye, who shared one of the videos from the reported attack, blamed it on the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.

In a post, he wrote, “The fight between Tinubu and Buhari is entering a new dimension. The attack in Kano was properly coordinated and funded allegedly by Asiwaju.

“The meeting to push Buhari to submission or face sponsored attack in the north was said to be hatched in Burdillon. Me, I am busy with Atiku.”

A political activist, Deji Adeyanju, who shared another video of the reported attack, said, “They are showing Buhari and APC Shege in Kano and many northern states.”

Similarly, the PDP in a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, on Monday also blamed Tinubu and the Governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Ganduje, for the attack.

According to the party, the attack was designed to undermine the Presidency, cause confusion, trigger violence in the country, disrupt the conduct of the 2023 general elections “and derail our democracy having realised that he cannot win in a peaceful, free and fair electoral process.”

The statement read in part, “The PDP invites Nigerians to note how Governor Abdullahi Ganduje attempted to abridge President Buhari’s movement and even tried to stop him from visiting Kano State.

“More disquieting is the fact that the APC Presidential Campaign sought to humiliate and harm President Buhari while performing his official duties in Kano.

“It should be noted that the APC presidential candidate has been displaying open aversion and making inciting statements against President Buhari since Mr President’s declaration, in line with democratic best practice all over the world that Nigerians should freely vote for any candidate and party of their choice in the 2023 general elections.