Against All Odds, Jonathan Campaign Train Moves To Borno Saturday

Source: thewillnigeria.com

BEVERLY HILLS, January 23, (THEWILL) – Despite recent attacks on the President Goodluck Jonathan Campaign Team in Katsina and Bauchi, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential Campaign Team is expected in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, on Saturday.

The Jonathan campaign rally in the state considered as the home of the five-year-old Boko Haram insurgency is coming as the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, called off his earlier scheduled campaign rally in the state originally planned to hold same Saturday.

When the Jonathan campaign arrives the state on Saturday, the five-year-old conflict is expected to be at the front burner of the campaign promises.

Meanwhile, the governor of the State, Alhaji Kashim Shettima, has pleaded with his supporters not to attack the president's campaign team but accord President Jonathan the full respect he deserves as the number 1 citizen of the country.

In a statement by his media aide, Mallam Isa Gusau, Governor Shettima said the call became necessary because of the Bauchi and Katsina incidents where irate youths mobbed the President's convoy.

Condemning the attacks in their entirety, Shettima said: “From what I have read or heard in the media, so far, there has not been any issue of such in any APC controlled State visited by the President and Borno should not be an exception.”

According to the governor, “We have political differences and our differences are legitimate and based on the principles of our political parties and what we stand for.”

“But we must remember that His Excellency, Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCFR, is the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and as citizens of this country, we have an obligation to respect his office and his person.”

Shettima advised all the supporters of the party, and those of the Presidential candidate, General Buhari, and anyone that supports him or any of the party's National and State Assembly candidates in the State, to shun any act of violence, intolerance and unlawful political behaviour before, during and after the President's visit , asking them to remain law abiding citizens as the laws, norms and values of the state demand.