President Muhammadu Buhari has in Kaduna on Thursday, recalled with nostalgia how he narrowly escaped being bombed near the Kawo bridge, while travelling to Katsina State in July 2014.
Buhari who was at the newly constructed Kawo bridge executed by the El-Rufai administration, said ”there was an attempt to bomb me here…there was a market nearby .”….but his security escort were vigilant.
The Kawo bridge was a project ,many said had became a cynosure, which had attracted many tourists to Kaduna since its completion.
PRESS RELEASE
PRESIDENT BUHARI INAUGURATES KAWO FLYOVER, OTHER PROJECTS IN KADUNA, RECOUNTS NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCE IN 2014
President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday inaugurated the 800-metre long flyover in Kawo, Kaduna State, recounting how he narrowly escaped a targeted bomb attack in the vicinity in 2014.
Reminiscing on the unfortunate incident, which claimed the lives of many innocent Nigerians, the President said he remains grateful to God for sparing his life on that fateful day on Ali Akilu road, Kawo-Kaduna.
”For many years, I always plied this route and I cannot recount how many times I crossed it.
”There was an attempt on my life on this road. Nothing happened to me just like the 30 months I spent during the civil war.
”They wanted to blow up the vehicle I was in around the secretariat but my escort somehow stopped them. But before we came to this bridge (Kawo), they became more desperate and there was a small market in the area where the device exploded.
”But God protected us and here I am again,’’ he said.
The President, who also inaugurated the newly remodelled Murtala Mohammed Square, 136-bed Infectious Disease Hospital, LEA Lokoja Road Primary School, Rigasa, Aliyu Makama road and the Leventis underpass, executed by the State government, praised Governor Nasir El-Rufai for completing people-oriented projects in Kaduna metropolis as well as in other senatorial zones in the State .
At the Murtala Square, the new city centre of Kaduna State, President Buhari while admiring the remodelled edifice, recalled that he was constrained by family challenges to relocate from Daura to Kaduna after he was released from detention as a former military Head of State.
”I can hardly find my way in Kaduna due to the development taking place here and the governor has committed himself to change Kaduna for good and has been very successful at that, and Nigerians are appreciative that you are writing your history in letters of gold, ” he said.
In the metropolis, the President also commissioned the Barbedos fertilizer plant, a private sector investment in the State.
Speaking at the LEA Lokoja Primary School, the Governor said the project has now been renamed ‘‘Buhari mega-primary school.”
He noted that the people of Rigasa have been consistent in giving President Buhari 98 percent of their votes in previous presidential elections.
”They are the most committed Buharists in the country,” he said.
Garba Shehu
Senior Special Assistant to the President
(Media & Publicity)
January 20, 2022.
Source:
Pinky Republic Blog