Alhaji Muritala Yakubu Ajaka, candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the coming governorship Kogi state election, has escaped assassination.
The incident reportedly occurred a few hows after Governor Yahaya Bello’s convoy was also attacked.
However, the SDP candidate has accused the state governor of orchestrating the attack on his motorcade.
He insisted that Bello personally led the attack.
Politics Nigeria reports that he disclosed this in a statement signed by Faruk Adejo Audu, Director of Communications, Muritala Yakubu Organisation.
According to the statement, Alhaji Ajaka and some vehicles accompanying him were approaching Lokoja near the ram market at about 3 pm when two power bikes and Toyota Hilux overtook his car and forced it to a stop.
The statement claimed that some men jumped down and began shooting at Ajaka’s car. It added that they shot for over five minutes while the governor’s car was parked a few meters in front and was used to barricade the road.
The statement read in part:
“Bello is on record to have unleashed guns and gunmen on several citizens in the course of his Eight years draconian rule. Several persons have been killed by his hoodlums during electioneering, while others are missing.
“Ajaka, until recently, was a member of the APC who was forced out of the governorship nomination by Mr Yahaya Bello, who used minions and proxies to obtain an injunction from a Lokoja High Court restraining him from participating in the primaries.
“The brute action today is obviously a continuation of Bello’s desperation to stop Yakubu from continuing in the election.”
