By Egbe Attah
The Otukpo residence of the of All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain in Benue South, Alhaji Usman Abubakar, popularly known as “Young Alhaji” was on Wednesday morning set ablaze by suspected hoodlums.
The Voice gathered that the fire razed the front of the building, housing the security post and extra buildings.
Narrating the incident to newsmen, Alhaji Abubakar said: “I was awoken by my fire alarm at 3am only to discover that a section of my house was on fire.
“It took the quick intervention of my boys to prevented the inferno from getting to other parts of the building.”
Young Alhaji, however, thanked God that no valuables and sensitive documents were destroyed nor lives lost in the incident.
Reacting to the incident, the Otukpo Zonal Police Commander, Zakaria Ibrahim, who visited the scene of the incident, said his men would commence investigation on the matter.
“The police will immediately commence investigation into the incident and if it is discovered that anybody or group is behind it, the force will bring such to justice no matter how highly placed,” the area commander stated.
It could be recalled that recently, Young Alhaji displayed a mock coffin and opened a condolence register in front of his house as protest over leadership of APC in the state and choice of deputy governor from the area.
A source who spoke on the conditions of anonymity informed The Voice that Alh. Abubakar’s recent visit to Governor Samuel Ortom may have also angered his political opponents. He added that he saw the attempt to burn down Abubakar’s house as a handiwork of his political opponents.