The Governor of Plateau State, Simon Lalong and the Minister of Transportation and Director-General of the Buhari/Osinabajo Campaign Organisation, Rotimi Amaechi, were not able to deliver any speech at Rwang Pam Stadium, the venue of President Muhammadu Buhari’s election campaign, in Jos, the Plateau State capital, due to a rowdy crowd that forced them and the President to leave the venue without giving a speech.
After his arrival at the venue, the President was not able to get to his seat for at least thirty minutes despite the fact that the security personnel pushed back the crowd believed to be supporters of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
The crowd continued to surge towards the podium, while others climbed the top of vehicles in the Presidential entourage which caused the security personnel to whisk away the President, who was only able to wave to party supporters, through the rear exit without delivering his speech.
The crowd went on to vandalise vehicles, some parts of the stadium as well as disconnecting the public address system and carted away the cables. At the gate of the stadium, party faithful kept pushing to enter defying the orderly queue.
The President and other dignitaries could not gain access to the podium because of the mammoth crowd. They could not use the public address system, so none of the dignitaries spoke including the president, who could only wave the crowd, before he was smuggled out through the VIP section of the stadium.
The Police Spokesman, DSP Teena Tyopev, had before the event said that 2, 050 police personnel have been deployed to ensure a hitch-free event. Despite the deployment of the security personnel which included the military, officers of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), vigilantes among others, they had am uphill task containing the mammoth crowd.
Recall that the Chairman of committee and Deputy Governor of the State, Prof. Sonni Tyoden, had during a press briefing on Wednesday envisaged the turnout, and assured that adequate security arrangement was in place. He said, “As usual, we are expecting a large gathering of party faithful from all the 17 local government areas of the state. Conscious of the expectation of his coming, all other arrangements including security before and after the grand rally is in top gear”.
Meanwhile, the main opposition PDP had earlier before the arrival of President Buhari, said citizens of the state have every reason to panic over the president’s visit, saying anytime he visits the state “our peace in the state would be threatened by his knife wielding, club carrying supporters”. They equally said the citizenry have every right to “panic and shiver”, because they have lost confidence in the leadership style of Governor Simon Lalong and President Muhammadu Buhari.
Bashir Ahmad
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@BashirAhmaad
Plateau is so extremely extraordinary, the love is totally not from here, the crowd is overwhelmed to the extent that Pres @MBuhari couldn’t be able to address them, I was right earlier when I said these people have accepted #NextLevel message even before it’s delivered to them.
The party through its State Publicity Secretary, John Akans, said the people of the state have to panic because their experiment with the APC led administration has prove to be the worst mistake they ever made in recent times. Akans said, “As Plateau people prepare for the APC Presidential flag bearer’s visit to the state on Saturday (yesterday), January 19, 2019, Plateau should panic, shiver because they have lost confidence in Governor Lalong and President Buhari’s leadership.”
President Buhari praised the people of the state for leaving their everyday duties to turn out in their thousands to welcome him to Jos and lining the roads from the airport to the campaign venue despite the hot sun. He also thanked them for their support over the years and for showing support for the administration by turning out massively at the stadium.
He then stressed that in the future they should show restraint in future campaign stops.
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