All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate Bola Tinubu held his campaign rally in Niger state on Wednesday.
The event was held at the Minna Fair Complex, the state capital, and attracted crowds who gathered to catch a glimpse of the former governor of Lagos.
However, unlike previous campaigns of recent times, Tinubu made a brief appearance in the north central state and did not give a speech.
As early as 7 am on Wednesday, a crowd of party believers had thronged the campaign site in anticipation of Tinubu’s arrival. Shortly after his arrival, applause erupted from the audience. As he took to the podium, the APC candidate shouted “Niger Sai Bagode” with a short response from the ecstatic crowd. The APC then returned to its headquarters, a situation which prompted the master of ceremonies to announce the end of the campaign in Niger State. The whole scenario played out in seven minutes.
The rally was attended by vice-presidential candidate Kashim Shettima, Senate President Dr Ahmed Lawan, Babagana Zulum (Borno), Abdullahi Sule (Nasarawa), Abdullahi Ganduje (Kano) and Simon Bako Lalong (Plateau) governor, who is also the director general of the campaign.
Also present were former governors Adams Oshiomhole (Edo) and Abdulaziz Yari (Zamfara) and the party’s candidate for governor in Niger State, Muhammed Umar Bago. Shortly after the rally, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, the party’s national chairman, joined the campaign entourage.
Subsequently, the APC presidential candidate paid a courtesy visit to the Emir of Minna, Alhaji Umar Farouk Bahago, and opened two polling offices donated by Senators Sani Musa Mohammed and Alhaji Mohammed Idris.
It comes a day after Tinubu campaigned in Kaduna state, where he pledged to eliminate kidnappers and other “troublemakers” who are terrorizing Kaduna state in northwest Nigeria.
“All those troublemakers, violent kidnappers, murderers; all the troublemakers who disrupt (the) security of Kaduna, I assure you that we will eliminate them,” he said Tuesday at the APC Northwest presidential campaign rally in Kaduna.
Kaduna, one of the seven states in the Northwest geopolitical zone, has seen an increasing number of banditry and terrorist attacks over the past two years, including the infamous infiltration of the Nigerian Defense Academy on August 24, 2021 and the dastardly attack on a moving train on March 28, 2022.
The Kaduna state government said 1,192 people were killed by bandits and other violent groups in 2021, while more than 3,000 residents, students and travelers were kidnapped. According to official figures, more than 800 people have been killed by bandits and more than 1,200 kidnapped in Kaduna so far between January and September 2022.