The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, senatorial candidate for Kaduna Central in the February 2019 elections, Lawal Adamu Usman allegedly escaped lynching by thugs suspected to have been sent by his opponents on Saturday.
Recall that at the last sitting of the Kaduna State Senatorial Elections Petitions Tribunal, Ustaz Yunus Usman SAN, lead counsel to Lawal Adamu Usman in the petition challenging the result of the election, alerted the judges that he was questioned by security agents who claimed to have been petitioned by the state government on how he obtained certain documentary evidence.
The Senior Advocate of Nigeria asserted that he had been invited by the security and later granted bail but had been trailed ever since by security operatives.
The tribunal cautioned the security against further attempts at harassing the petitioner, Lawal Adamu Usman or any of his counsel pending the determination of a subsisting motion.
At the resumed hearing on Saturday, June 29, at which the petitioner, Lawal Adamu Usman was personally present, suspicious faces were noticed within the premises of the Kaduna State High Court venue of the tribunal.
This was brought to the notice of the open court by the petitioner’s lawyer and the alarmed Tribunal Chairman after getting confirmation acted swiftly by calling the attention of the Directorate of State Security.
The DSS operatives drafted to the tribunal also confirmed the suspicious presence of unfriendly persons around the premises and said they were in control of the situation.
At the close of the hearing, the thugs who turned out to be dangerously armed, pounced on the petitioner as he was leaving the courtroom. It took the concerted effort of the security and the petitioner’s supporters to save him from imminent lynching.
Remarking on the incident after he was saved, Lawal Adamu Usman said his life was currently under threat but said he will not be intimidated to dump his struggle to reclaim the people’s mandate through legal means.
Confirming the incident, Barrister Yunus, SAN, recounted that he received an anonymous phone call at 5am that Saturday warning him not to attend the Tribunal unless he would rather be dead.
“I replied that by reminding the caller that my life was in God’s hands and that I was not afraid to die in the discharge of my lawful duty,” Yunus said and vowed not to succumb to any form of intimidation.
Saturday’s aborted siege on the petitioner might not be unconnected with the rendering in evidence of series of damning documents by the petitioner that purports to prove that the first respondent, Uba Sani did not resign his appointment with the office of the Kaduna State Governor before going into the elections as required by extant laws.
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