Atiku’s witnesses lied, they were not attacked — Police

The Zamfara State Police Command has said the witnesses of the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, lied that they were attacked on their way to Abuja to testify at the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal.
The police said this on Sunday in a statement in reaction to the excuse given by the witnesses for not turning up at the Tribunal.
The statement, signed by the spokesman of the Zamafara State Command, SP Mohammed Shehu, reads: “The attention of  Zamfara State Police Command has been drawn to the above captioned story published by one of the national dailies of Saturday 13th July, 2019, in which some witnesses who were traveling to Abuja from Zamfara claimed to have been attacked by bandits, a situation that forced them to scampered into the bush.
“It is pertinent to categorically state that , as per the crime statistics  of  Zamfara state is concern, there was no any attack by bandits either on villages or on any person or group of persons traveling on any highway in the state. Since the inception of the ongoing peace and dialogue initiative in the the state, attacks, kidnapping and other heinous crime in the state have been reduced drastically to about 98 percent. A situation that restored  peace and stability in the state. The  rescue of over 100 persons who were kidnapped and held in captivity for months by the Commissioner of police CP Usman Nagogo psc+, is another indication that the ongoing peace process of the command is working assiduously.
“Therefore, the command wishes to refute the entire  story as misleading and a calculated attempt to undermine the current effort of both the state government and the police to bring lasting peace for social and economic development in the state. The command uses this medium to appeal to media organizations to verify their information before publication.”