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From left:Asiwaju Tinubu after he was turbanned as Dakare ( Generalissimo) of Birnin Gwari, the Emir and Senator Kashim Shettima
By Ibraheem Hamza Muhammad
The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has donated N50 million to the people of Birnin Gwari Local Government in Kaduna state.
The ancient town of Birnin Gwari Emirate is located at a distance of 245 kilometers or two hours drive from Kaduna, the state capital.
Asiwaju Tinubu visited the town on Monday evening and return back to Kaduna late in the night.
Tinubu donated N50million to victims of bandits attacks to the Emir, Alhaji Zubair Jibril II for onward distribution to his subjects.
Tinubu was turbanned as the Dakare – Generalissimo – of the Chiefdom.
He was accompanied on the goodwill visit to the grassroots by Governor Nasir El-Rufai, Speaker Alhaji Zamani.Senator Uba Sani
According to Tribune report, newspaper the town is at the Western part of Kaduna State Birnin Gwari is the bridge linking the Northern states and the South-West. But in spite of its strategic importance, there is nothing to show that this is a town that has been in existence for over 200 years and after which a local government area was created in 1976 by the then military government.
A resident of Dogon Dawa village under Birnin Gwari emirate, who pleaded for anonymity remarked that, apart from a state hospital, the town has nothing else to boast of that it is in the reckoning of government. According to the resident, “you cannot point to a single project provided by the state or federal government.”
He noted further that, “if you had left the town 10 years ago and come back, you can hardly see any change. Such was the level of neglect we are witnessing today,” he expleined.
But Tribune gathered that infrastructural neglect is not only their plight Insecurity in Birnin Gwari and its surrounding villages is the major challenge to the people of the area. For several years, it was gathered, criminals have taken over town and its environs.
A resident in Birnin Gwari town, Mallam Abdullahi Yusuf, contended that these criminals strike at will without resistance. According to him, armed banditry, kidnapping and rustling are the most thriving enterprise in the community. These criminals, he said, launch their attacks on a daily basis and as a result many people have fled the town to nearby towns like Tegina and Kagara in Niger State and Dandume and Funtua in Katsina State.
However, two incidents that happened in March compelled the paramount ruler of the town, Mallam Jibril Zubairu, Maigwari ll, to cry out for help. The Mallam Zubairu sought the help intervention of government before his subjects were wiped out. The first incident was the brutal killings of 11 soldiers by the armed bandits at a military base at Kampani Doka. The eyewitness told the Sunday Tribune that the soldiers who had retired to their base on a fateful night were attacked by the hoodlums in the middle of the night.
The outrage over the brutal killing of the soldiers had not died down when the bandits struck again at Tsowar Gwari, killing two persons. They also reportedly abducted nine people including a bride.
A disturbed Mallam Zubairu, Maigwari ll, said in an interview that if the “soldiers who were deployed to save our lives were been killed, then we cannot said we are safe.” According to him, it had become imperative for his subjects to defend themselves. The traditional ruler told Sunday Tribune that he had to make the declaration on self defence “ because the situation in my emirate is becoming unimaginable.
The Maigwari lamented that people are afraid to come and attend weddings in his emirate because of fear of being attacked. Even banks, he said, were afraid to establish their branches. “At a point, I asked myself whether we are part of Nigeria.”
He appealed to the federal government to rehabilitate Kaduna /Birnin Gwari /Jeba road, saying it is the gateway between Northern states and the South-West, just as he also made a case for Dandume /Funtua /Birnin Gwari road, whose deplorable conditions, he remarked, were being exploited by the bandits to carry out their nefarious activities.
Similarly, the Director of Media Directorates of All Progressives Congress, Tinubu/Shettima Independent Campaign Council, (APC-ICC) Mr Ntufam Hilliard Eta commended the foresight of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his entourage for daring to visit the electorates at the grassroots to sympathize, donate and renewed their hope for a secured and prosperous Nigeria.
“I am calling on the APC stakeholders to sensitize the electorates on the need to vote for the APC because it cared for all Nigerians, especially those at the grassroots.
“It should be noted that both party faithfuls and the voters should ensure a hitch free exercise of universal franchise, meaning the people who eligible to vote, do so without violence.”
