Gov Yuguda of Bauchi State not Heartless

Bauchi State governor Malam Isa Yuguda has said that the reference to him by a national daily as having spat on the graves of nine members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) who were killed in the post

presidential election violence in Bauchi was contrived to run him down even though his antecedent proved he is not a heartless person.

Speaking to journalists in Abuja at the weekend, Yuguda described the report as “wicked” and something that was orchestrated to hurt him and make him shed tears.  “I wept”, he said, stressing that “that is the most wicked statement I have ever heard in my life.”

“The newsmen came to my house...one of them asked me what’s your reaction to the corpers that were killed. What does he expect me to say? I said it was their time. I said God brought them to life and they were destined to die,” he said.

The governor said about 600 suspects are already in detention in connection with the murder of the corps members and others, assuring that he would ensure that those found guilty are brought to justice in accordance with the laws of the land.

“I have said that if the law will allow me after they have been found guilty, I will take the gun and shoot them myself. So what is the correlation between that statement and saying that I spat on the thumb of dead coppers?

“I became news, people were writing things about me as if they don’t know my antecedents, or treat me as an animal or somebody who is heartless. I think the person who wrote that must have been compromised to damage me, to run me down as an individual,” he said.

Yuguda said: “I sympathise with the parents because they lost their children who they spent about 20 years paying school fees. And I sympathise with myself because those souls were lost in my land where I am the governor. And when I enter my grave tomorrow God will ask me about those souls that were killed. I stand accountable for those before Allah.”

He said he believed that corpers should not be exposed to the vagaries of Nigerian politics, because of the presence of “animals around” that are prepared to “snatch ballot boxes” and “machete people.” (daily trust)