POLITICAL NOTES
There is always a day of reckoning for any politician who believes that politics is worth the blood of any man. The Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Alhassan Ado Doguwa, will have to convince the courts that he is not one of such politicians.
Last Wednesday he was remanded in prison after a five-count charge including culpable homicide, criminal conspiracy, causing grievous hurt, mischief by fire, and inciting public disturbance was filed against him.
According to reports, the influential lawmaker who represents Doguwa/Tudun Wada Federal Constituency of Kano State, was arrested after he was accused of leading thugs, who attacked and set on fire the office of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) at Tudun Wada, Kano, where two people were also burnt to death on Sunday during the collation of results of the just-concluded elections.
Doguwa was accused of shooting two to death and injuring others during the raid on the NNPP Tudun Wada Office.
The magistrate, Ibrahim Yola, said he had no jurisdiction to entertain the charges and ordered the accused to be remanded in prison custody.
The lawmaker is not new to allegation of violence. In a video that went viral last year, Doguwa, who spoke mainly in Hausa, had used abusive language to threaten prospective voters at a political rally in Kano.
“To God who made me, on election day, you must vote for APC or we will deal with you. I’m saying it again: On election day you either vote for APC, or we deal with you.
“Repeat after me, in Doguwa you either vote for APC or we deal with you,” he said.
His desperation to retain his seat was not surprising following a revelation that he was being positioned as the next Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Doguwa had earlier been accused of attacking the deputy governorship candidate of the APC in Kano State, Murtala Garo, with a teacup during a meeting.
However, the lawmaker denied that he attacked the deputy governorship candidate.
But Garo had told BBC Hausa that the majority leader violently invaded a meeting at the deputy governor’s residence and made several “baseless accusations” against the gathering, including the deputy governor, Nasiru Gawuna, who is also the party’s governorship candidate.
If the security agencies had prosecuted him for the various acts of violence, the latest incident which claimed lives would have been avoided.
