Thecampaign Office ofAir Marshal Sadique Baba Abubakaron Monday refuted the allegation which claimed“Ex-Chief of Air Staff, Sadique, Ruling APC Recruit ‘1000 Militants, Political Thugs’ Ahead of Bauchi Governorship Election”.

The media office of the APC governorship candidate for 2023 in Bauchi state while dismissing the allegation described it asa comical political publication trending as news item.

It maintains in a statement byHon Salisu Ahmed Barau,Chairman, Air Marshal Sadique Baba Abubakar Media & Publicity Committee, that, “This story is ostensibly fabricated to mislead the average Bauchi voters who are increasingly showing interests in ensuring the success of the All Progressives Congress candidate in the 2023 gubernatorial election, owing to the colossal failure of the ruling party to provide the State with purposeful leadership and dividends of democracy in the past three years. This political mischief, wrapped in a news garment, is apparently a dirty political hatchet job that calls for immediate clarification from the Air Marshal Sadique Baba Abubakar Media Office”.

To put the records straight, thestatement said, “Honourable Shehu Aliyu Musa (Barden Gabas of Bauchi), who is member of the association attended the meeting that was organised to congratulate him on his emergence as the running mate to Air Marshal Sadique Baba Abubakar with the leadership of the Bauchi State Amalgamated Associations of Butchers, Hunters, Cobblers, Blacksmiths, and Berbers after opening the Associations’ State Secretariat in Bauchi.

“As law-abiding citizens, we did not hold the meeting in question until we officially sought for and obtained the approval of the Bauchi State Police Commissioner who was represented at the meeting by an Assistant Superintendent of Police.

“The mere mention of ‘Militants and Political Thugs’ in the publication gives away those behind the write up as some Bauchi politicians are already scared that since he secured the gubernatorial ticket of the APC, people from all parts of the State are shifting their support from various camps to the aspiration of Air Marshal Sadique Baba Abubakar, the new entrants being members of Butchers, Hunters, Cobblers, Blacksmiths, and Berbers associations”.

Continuing, “It is known fact that it was in recognition of the outstanding military career of the retired Air Marshal Sadique Baba Abubakar in the service of the nation that President Buhari immediately appointed Sadique as Nigeria’s Ambassador to the Republic of Chad to check some of the most notorious sources of criminal insurgency that have ravaged the north eastern part of this country in the past ten years. It therefore baffles the reader that someone who spent the past forty years of his life defending his country, will now be accused of turning against it”.

The campaign office therefore accused the state governor poor performance, saying, “It is their decimal performance in office that prompted the entry of the retired Air Marshal Sadique Baba Abubakar into the gubernatorial race, and the voters are eager to give them their score cards on the election day”.

It said that the people of Bauchistate are politically sophisticatedandcannot be fooled by this kind of dirty political undertaking, adding,“they know the crooks who sleep in the same bed with ‘militants and political thugs’ in their political sojourns”.