President Goodluck Jonathan’s convoy came under attack again on Thursday by some aggrieved youths who pelted his convoy with stones in Jalingo, Taraba State.
Jonathan was in the city in continuation of the Peoples Democratic Party’s presidential rally.
It was gathered that the windscreens and windows of some of the vehicles on the convoy were destroyed before security operatives used tear gas and horsewhips to disperse the youths.
Anonymous eyewitness accounts told our correspondent that the incident occurred when the President’s convoy was going to the palace of the Emir of Muri, Abass Tafida, from the airport.
“Security agents ensured that people were moved very far from the main road but at a point, the convoy got to a particular village where the youths became restive. Before we knew what was happening, they started stoning the convoy,” one of the sources said.
However, sources said that President Jonathan, who was unruffled by the incident, used the opportunity of his visit to the state to meet with ailing Governor Danbaba Suntai, who has been unable to return to work since he was involved in a plane crash in October 2012.
However, one of the sources said that while Jonathan was busy campaigning, another set of angry youths descended on the state PDP secretariat in Jalingo and it took the intervention of security agents to save the building from being reduced to rubble by the angry youths who vandalised 12 vehicles on the premises.
PDP spokesperson in the state, Napoleon Adamu, who lamented the incident, said the youths were protesting their non-inclusion in the preparation for Jonathan’s visit.
He expressed anger that despite the Abuja accord signed by all the presidential candidates, some elements could still go as far as attacking members of the party.
“We are happy that no life was lost and we want to appeal to our teeming youths to eschew violence and not to take the law into their own hands.
“Even before the date the President’s campaign was fixed, the youths had been complaining that they were not carried along by the committees constituted for the visit.”
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