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Mob holds Kwakwanso hostage in Kano
By Don Bassey, correspondent,
Kano
Defence Minister Rabiu
Musa Kwankwaso was mobbed at the Sani Abacha Stadium, Kano at the weekend when
he attended the flag off of the 2004 Synchronised National Immunisation Days
(NIDS).
It was at a ceremony
otherwise intended as the final push to eradicate polio in West and Central
African countries; which saw the presence of three African heads of state.
Signs that his day in
Kano, a state he governed between 1999 and 2003, would be rough came as early
as 10.35 a.m. when security men had to smuggle him into the venue after
protesters bearing hostile slogans stopped his car from entering the stadium.
All through the three
hours the ceremony lasted, a section of the crowd, said to be supporters of the
All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and incumbent Governor Ibrahim Shekarau,
chanted anti-Kwankwaso songs and followed it up at the end of the ceremony with
a physical blockage of the only route out of the stadium.
The traffic jam on all
roads leading to and out of the stadium did not help matters. He had to swallow
the insults for the 20 minutes his car was help up.
Not satisfied with the
name-calling, the wild crowd went a step further by throwing empty cans, water
bottle and toilet tissue at the minister’s Peugeot 607 car, despite the
presence of armed soldiers.
It took repeated
threats from the soldiers and a re-enforcement from the police for the motley
crowd to disperse and allow Kwankwaso to leave.
But, as opposed to the
hostile reception accorded him, Mrs. Maryam Abacha, widow of late Head of State
Sani Abacha, received a standing ovation; first when she stepped out of her
Mercedes Benz car unto the stadium’s race track, and later when she was
leaving the venue.
She arrived at 9.45
a.m. and remained in her car for 10 minutes, arousing curiosity about the
identity of the car’s occupant.
When her aides cleared
with protocol and she stepped on the race track, the crowd roared and clapped
until the Abacha matriarch sat down at the covered stand of the Stadium.
Signs that the Abacha
family was warming its way back into the political highway came when she was
invited to the high table, also occupied by President Olusegun Obasanjo,
African Commission Chairperson Alpha Konare, two African heads of state,
governors, National Assembly members as well as representatives of United
Nations (UN) agencies and other international partners in the fight for polio
eradication.
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