The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Zamfara State are playing the blame game over the violence that reportedly claimed some lives and left others wounded in Gusau.

The incident reportedly occurredaswhentheconvoy of the PDP’s governorship candidate, Dr. Dauda Lawal was attacked a few meters away from the residence of Governor Bello Matawalle where his supporters gathered in large numbers. The supporters of both parties were said to have engaged in a war of words, which later resulted in a gunfight.

TheAPCPublicitySecretary, Yusuf Idrishadaccused Lawal’ssupportersof attacking innocent supporters of his party using firearms, which led to the killing of some of them, with 20 others sustaining gunshot wounds.

He said: “Dr. Dauda, who wewellknowhadnomilitary attachéinhisconvoy, camein with people wearing military camouflage and raising suspicion that they are bandits. To confirm oursuspicion, the gang later shot at innocent citizenswherewereceived reports that some of them lost their liveswhile20personsreceivedgunshotwounds.

They are currently at the Yariman Bakura Specialist Hospital Gusau for medical attention. “You are aware that Governor Bello Matawalle has already given an order banning all politicalgatherings in the state due to the security situation, which must be the concern of all.

“Although we have since called for calm on our members and supporters, we are still urging the security agencies to unravel the intentions of this attack, arrest the perpetrators, recover the arms they used and prosecute them.”

But the PDP Deputy Chairman, Mukhtar Mohammed Lugga disputed the claimthathisparty’ssupporters attacked their APC counterparts. He said: “The PDP is not a thuggery-promoting party but only earned its popularity in the struggle to save life and property.

Therefore, we too have our two innocent members injuredbygunshotscurrently receiving treatment at theYarimanBakuraSpecialist Hospital. “We don’t have anybody to finger-point at as liable for the attack on our members for now as we wait for law enforcement agencies to unmask the situation.

We want to see the faces of those attacked and those that set ablaze a vehicle belonging to the PDP and those that vandalized our party headquarters in Gusau.(New Telegraph)