BY LUKA BINNIYAT

ABUJA –A member of the House of Representatives, Bello Muhammad Mutawalle (PDP-Zamfara), alleged yesterday that his life was in danger after he received several phone calls from unknown persons vowing to kill him if he did not returned to the All Nigerian Peoples Party, ANPP, which he abandoned for Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, last year.

Mutawalle, who was the immediate past Deputy Minority Whip of the House of Representatives, said in a statement that for the past two weeks, he had been receiving telephone calls from some unknown persons threatening to assassinate him because his defection to the PDP had led to the failure of the ANPP in some of its strongholds in Zamfara State.

According to him, the callers are angry that because of his contribution to the PDP in the recent bye-elections in Anka Local Government of Zamfara State, PDP defeated the ANPP, and viewed the development as unacceptable.

“I strongly suspects some of my former political associates in the ANPP to be behind the threat. The message by the unanimous callers was that I should go back to ANPP because they will not allow me to politically destroy their party and their leaders in the state,” he said.

Mutawalle, also a former gubernatorial aspirant in the ANPP, said he left the ANPP  after he was arbitrarily denied the ticket of the party by the immediate past governor of the state, Sen Ahmed Sani Yarima.

According to him, shortly after decampment, the PDP won the recently held bye-election in Anka, a stronghold of Yarima.
Mutawalle said he had already reported the matter to the appropriate security agencies.

He explained that the threat would not in any way affect his resolve to ensure the defeat of the ANPP in the state in the forthcoming general elections, adding that “I am ready to use all the means at my disposal to ensure the defeat of ANPP and end the false claim of political leadership in the state by Yarima.”

“The threat is empty boast because they know that they cannot intimidate or cow me to spare them and the ANPP during the forthcoming elections.

“What I expected of them is a civilised approach to politics, but I am not surprised, knowing their antecedents.”