The Peoples Democratic Party senatorial candidate for Kaduna Central in the February 2019 elections, Lawal Adamu Usman, narrowly escaped being lynched by suspected thugs on Saturday.
At the close of the hearing, some dangerously armed thugs, who had earlier been noticed prowling around the tribunal premises, pounced on Lawal as he was leaving the courtroom.
It took concerted efforts of the security agencies, who had been monitoring them, and the petitioner’s supporters to save him from being lynched.
Commenting on the incident, Lawal Adamu Usman said his life is currently under threat but was quick to say that he will not be intimidated to dump his struggle to reclaim the people’s mandate through legal means.
Confirming the incident, Barrister Yunus recounted that he received an anonymous phone call at 5am that Saturday warning him not to attend the tribunal unless he wishes to be dead.
“I replied by reminding the caller that my life was in God’s hands and that I was not afraid to die in the discharge of my lawful duty,” Yunus said and vowed not to succumb to any form of intimidation.
As at the last sitting of the Kaduna State Senatorial Elections Petitions Tribunal, the lead counsel to Lawal Adamu Usman in the petition challenging the result of the election, Ustaz Yunus Usman (SAN), had alerted the judges that he was questioned by security agents who claimed to have been petitioned by the state government on how he obtained certain documentary evidence.
The counsel asserted that he had been invited by the security and later granted bail but had been trailed ever since by security operatives.
The tribunal cautioned the security agencies against further attempts at harassing the petitioner, Lawal Adamu Usman or any of his counsels pending the determination of the subsisting motion.
And at the resumed hearing on Saturday, June 29, at which the petitioner Lawal Adamu Usman was personally present, suspicious faces were noticed within the premises of the Kaduna state High Court, the venue of the tribunal.
This was brought to the notice of the open court by the petitioner’s lawyer and the alarmed tribunal chairman after getting confirmation swiftly called the attention of the Directorate of State Security.
The DSS operatives drafted to the tribunal also confirmed the suspicious presence of unfriendly persons around the premises and said they were in control of the situation.
Saturday’s aborted attack on the petitioner might not be unconnected with the rendering in evidence of series of documents by the petitioner that purports to prove that the first respondent, Uba Sani, did not resign his appointment with the office of the Kaduna state governor before going into the elections as required by extant laws.
