Kawu Mohammed Masu alias Toplero, the Gombe State All Progressive Congress (APC) youth leader escaped dead by the whiskers after sustaining a gun shot wound while trying to snatch ballot box.
The ballot box contained the results from the just concluded presidential election at the Yahaya Umaru 010 polling unit in Government Science Secondary School, Jekadafari, Gombe.
The incident, according to an eye witness, happened on the way to the INEC office shortly after the presiding officer of the unit Meshach Thomas had announced that the Governor, who is the North-east coordinator of the Tinubu presidential campaign lost in the polling unit to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) during the presidential polls.
The APC members were said to have been angered by the loss which triggered the move to render the result useless.
The eyewitness who pleaded anonymity recount that the APC resorted to snatching the ballot box to prevent it from going to the collation center using the youth leader and other machinery for the act.
Another source from within the APC boys revealed that the incident occurred at around 8:45 pm on the election day when officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) were packing up for the day.
“The incident occurred on the road leading to INEC office, along Bauchi road in Gombe metropolis, the youth leader was hanging on the Hilux van when he ordered his boys to snatch the box and other materials”. The eyewitness said.
“When he noticed the reaction of the security personnel providing security for the INEC officials, when he tried to jump down from the van, he was shot in the left leg and which led to a fracture in the second.
“He was rushed to the Federal Teaching Hospital in Gombe for treatment,” the source explained in Hausa language.
At the hospital, several security personnel mostly soldiers were seen everywhere around the Accident and Emergency (E&A) department of the hospital, while doctors tried to save the youth leader’s leg from being damaged permanently.
(Daily Independent)
