The presidential campaign rally of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Bauchi State was brought to an abrupt end by a power outage on Monday, leaving President Muhammadu Buhari and the party’s standard bearer, Bola Tinubu, unable to deliver their speeches.
The rally, which commenced at 11.50 am, was going on at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Stadium, Bauchi, when the power supply ceased and the sound system went off and could not be restored.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports that there was an outage when the Chairman of the Progressives Governors’ Forum, Atiku Bagudu, was making his speech at 12.20 pm.
Shortly after, the electricity supply was restored and Bagudu came back to conclude his remarks.
But at exactly 1.10 pm, the power supply again went off shortly after the APC National Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu, mounted the podium and began addressing the party supporters.
After waiting in vain for power to be restored, the president marched to the podium and raised Tinubu, Shettima and the Bauchi State governorship candidate, Sadique Abubakar’s hands as a sign of endorsement
On the podium with the national chairman were Tinubu; his running mate, Kashim Shettima and his wife Nana, while Buhari, who was sitting at the VIP (Very important persons’) section of the stadium, waited for electricity to be restored.
While Adamu, Tinubu, Shettima and others were on the podium, the power was restored again before it went off for the third time and all efforts to resolve it failed.
As a result of the power failure, Tinubu could not address the mammoth crowd at the rally, following the departure of President Buhari for a scheduled visit to Lagos.
APC’s reaction to the outage
In a telephone conversation, The party’s Director of Publicity, Bala Ibrahim, said it would be wrong to attribute the incident to sabotage, adding however that the picture would become clearer at the end of the investigation.
“I can’t confirm what truly happened. The engineer will be able to tell what really happened even though from the onset, when I saw wire microphones, I had a little reservation.
“Under normal circumstances, we should have used wireless microphones. I am not a technician so I can’t allude to anything. Investigations would reveal what truly happened,” Ibrahim said.
Narrating the incident, the Director of Publicity said, “There was a sound breach, the equipment failed, and the audio quality was bad, but that is not to say the scheduled appointment of Mr. President was abruptly interrupted.
‘’The President was called upon to come to the podium and as he was getting there; the chairman of the party was addressing the rally, then, the sound system went off.
“People couldn’t hear him but all the same, the chairman called on the public to vote for the APC and the presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu climbed to the podium.’’
‘’The President raised his hand and called on the people of Bauchi to massively vote for Tinubu and (retired) Air Marshal Saddique Abubakar as the governorship candidate and all APC candidates standing for elections.
“The President had another scheduled for Lagos and so he left. He is a man who is punctual, who wants to keep to time and just because there was a sound breach does not mean he should delay his departure for Lagos,” he said.
Buhari’s arrival at the APC rally in Bauchi
Buhari had arrived in Bauchi to lead the APC presidential and governorship campaign rally.
The aircraft conveying the President touched down at the Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Airport, Bauchi around 10:20 am.
He was received by the Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed, who is the Peoples Democratic Party candidate and his opponent in the March 11 governorship election, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar (retd.).
Others, who were at the airport to receive the President include the APC chairman, Adamu; the Director-General of the APC Presidential Campaign Council and Governor of Plateau State, Simon Lalong; Senate President Ahmad Lawan; Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila; former Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Abdulrahman Danbazzau (retd.); Andy Ubah, Governors of Borno, Kebbi and Yobe states, Babagana Zulum, Abubakar Bagudu and Mai Mala Buni, respectively.
From the airport, Buhari proceeded to the palace of the Emir of Bauchi, Dr Rilwanu Adamu, for a courtesy visit and thereafter headed to the campaign venue.
Buhari was to officially present the APC candidates to the Bauchi electorate at the rally, from where he would depart for Lagos on a two-day working visit.
But after waiting in vain for power to be restored, the president marched to the podium and raised Tinubu, Shettima and the Bauchi State governorship candidate, Sadique Abubakar’s hands as a sign of endorsement.
He also went round the podium to show Tinubu and his running mate to the thousands of supporters who were becoming restless.
While that was going on, the technical team was running up and down trying to fix the outage but they could not.
Buhari, who subsequently left the stadium without delivering any speech, waved to the crowd as he headed toward his vehicle.
The rally ended shortly after the President’s departure.
APC chieftains who spoke at the rally before the outage
Other party chieftains who spoke at the event before the outage include the state Chairman of the APC, Musa Babayo; the state governorship candidate; the Chairman of the APC Presidential Campaign Council and Plateau state Governor, Simon Lalong; the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Amb. Maryam Katagum; a former Bauchi state governor, Isa Yuguda;
However, thousands of party supporters who had gathered to show their solidarity and catch a glimpse at the president left in anger, confusion and disappointment.
It was gathered that some youths vandalized and took away some of the iron barricades used for crowd control at the stadium.
