It was like a scene straight out of a movie when the former Chairman, Kaduna Chapter of the Petroleum Tanker Drivers Association (PTD), Comrade Nuhu Babawo (popularly known as ‘Intelligent’) came face-to-face with assassins in front of his residence in the early hours of yesterday.

Babawo was in military custody for a month before he was released on bail and discharged by a Magistrate Court in Kaduna last year.

Narrating his ordeal to our reporter at the Kakuri Police Station, Babawo said he was attacked by three men armed with dangerous weapons while on his way to the mosque around 4:45am.

He tells his story: “I just saw three hoodlums appear from nowhere while I was trekking to the mosque near my house.

“They strangled me and stabbed me severally between my neck and my collar bone, but the dagger, by God’s grace, did not penetrate.

"Upon realising, one of them brought out a matchet and hit my leg with it. That was when I summoned courage and started wrestling to the ground with them and shouted for help.

“My attackers fled when people came to my rescue. I was lucky to have escaped with bruises from my inner right ankle.

“I have given my statement to the police now and as you can see, the police are going with me to my house to see the scene of the incident and commence investigation into the matter. I can identify one of the assassins who was wearing a winter cap.”

Asked why he thought anyone would want him dead, Babawo said the attack is not unconnected with his growing popularity in his bid to re-contest the position of Chairman of the PTD, which he headed some years back.

“I am not surprise if the attempt to my life is not unconnected to my growing popularity to contest again,” he said, adding: “The same people have made failed to frame me up for terrorism last years and I forgave them. “They went to an extent of writing a petition against the judgement of the court that discharged me against all the framed up charges last years.”

When our reporter visited Babawo’s house in the company of the police team from Kakuri Police Station, thousands of sympathisers completely blocked the entire Matawalle Road leading to his residence around Nnamdi Azikwe Way in Kaduna.

•Photo: Comrade Babawo under arrest last year.

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