3 Women Collapse As Police Teargas Tata’s Supporters In Katsina

3 Women Collapse As Police Teargas Tata’s Supporters In Katsina

Three middle-aged women collapsed on Saturday during the guber declaration by one of the Katsina State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) gubernatorial aspirants, Umar Abdullahi Tsauri popularly known as Tata, when policemen suspected to be carrying out the order of the state government, teargassed Tata and his supporters to ensure the event never held.
It was gathered that the women, whose identities were not known as at the time of writing this report, slumped owing to the harmful impact of the teargas they were made to inhale severally.
Our correspondent reports that the planned declaration was scheduled to take place at the popular Polo ground in Katsina municipal, but was later shifted to the airport after the venue was burnt down on Friday night by suspected political thugs.
However, the planned declaration could still not hold at the airport as the police reportedly teargassed Tata’s supporters who were at the airport for the event.
Speaking to our correspondent by phone, the media aide to Tata, Mallam
Muhammad Lawal. said the police frustrated his principal’s efforts to formally declare his guber ambition.
“For no just reasons, we were denied access to the polo ground which was our original venue and when we shifted it to the airport, the police tear gas us. So the declaration could not hold,” he added.
But when our correspondent contacted the Public Relations Officer of Katsina State Police Command, DSP Abubakar Sadik, he said the command did not grant permit to Tata for the planned event.
DSP Sadik said Tata applied for permit, but the state police command asked him to wait till INEC lifted ban on campaigns, stressing that the command prevented him from holding the rally so as to ensure law and order.
Addressing journalists on his chartered plane at the Katsina Airport, the aspirant, Alhaji Umar Abdullahi Tsauri said he applied for permit to hold the declaration and the police granted him the permit, adding that he would go to court because the permit was never rescinded, yet the police infringed on his fundamental human rights.
He called on his supporters to be steadfast and not give up on his aspiration, as no amount of intimidation would deter him from seeking the mandate of the people to provide visionary leadership to them.