The battleground will be this Saturday’s by-election for the vacant seat of Dass constituency at the Bauchi State House of Assembly.
The Governor of Bauchi State, Bala Mohammed, and the former Speaker of House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, will test their political strengths in the state following their recent parting of ways.
The battleground will be this Saturday’s bye-election organised by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the vacant seat of Dass constituency at the Bauchi State House of Assembly.
INEC recently fixed Saturday, December 5, for bye-elections across Nigeria.
The Dass House of Assembly seat became vacant following the assassination of its former occupant, Musa Baraza, then a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Late Mr Baraza was on August 14 murdered by unknown assailants at his country home, Baraza, in Dass Local Government Area.
Some suspects have been arrested while the police say an investigation into the murder is ongoing.
The bye-election is not only meant to replace the deceased legislator but it is also an epic battle between the two top political friends turned foes.
Dass is one of the local government areas under Mr Dogara’s federal constituency.
Mr Dogara was until August 24, a member of the state’s governing PDP and a close ally of Mr Mohammed. It is generally believed that Mr Dogara, who was the then-Speaker of the House of Representative, played a key role in the 2019 election that brought Mr Mohammed of the PDP to power.
Now in different political parties, Messrs Mohammed and Dogara are using the Dass House of Assembly bye-election to test their local influence.
Mr Dogara enjoys a cult-followership in his constituency, Dass/Tafawa-Balewa/Bogoro Federal Constituency, a reason he never lost any of his elections in the area since 2003.
Governor Mohammed, who also enjoys vast popularity in the state, was also a former senator under whose constituency Dass is located. The former FCT minister is expected to deploy his incumbency influence to ensure the people of Dass show support for his party, the APC.
The exit of Mr Dogara from PDP barely 15 months after he “assisted” the party to form a government came as a huge embarrassment to the party.
Governor Bala Mohammed, who had seized every available public forum to dismiss the action of his former political ally, has sworn to ensure a defeat for Mr Dogara in his constituency.
To demonstrate how critical it is for him to win the state assembly seat for his new party, Mr Dogara did not only bankroll the campaign for his party’s candidate, he also stormed Dass township for the party’s grand campaign on Wednesday in the company of several serving members of the National Assembly, as well as top APC stalwarts from within and outside Bauchi.
Among those that followed Mr Dogara to Dass for the bye-election campaign were Jikan Haliru, an APC Senator from Bauchi, and a lawmaker, Gudaji Kazaure, from Jigawa State.
During the campaign, Mr Dogara told the crowd that, “this election is between me and Governor Bala Mohammed.”
