The House of Representatives Majority Leader, Alhassan Doguwa, has publicly apologized to Kano Leadership Newspaper correspondent, Abdullahi Yakubu, whom he assaulted recently.
The journalist had dragged Doguwa to a Magistrate Court in the state for assaulting him when he attended a press conference at the lawmaker’s residence.
The press conference was said to be at the instance of the lawmaker, who was accused of gate-crashing into an All Progressives Congress stakeholders meeting in Kano recently, with the meeting ending in crisis.
The court subsequently ordered the Assistant Inspector General of Police, Zone 1, to investigate the alleged assault case filed by the journalist against the lawmaker.
Appearing before the AIG on Friday, Doguwa said he was not aware of the summon to appear before the police authority over the assault allegation until the same Friday when he received the invitation, hence his appearance.
The lawmaker, representing Doguwa/Tudun Wada federal constituency, said in an interview with Radio Kano on Saturday, monitored by our correspondent on Sunday, that he immediately apologized to the journalist Yakubu, who incidentally had been his friend for over 30 years.
‘’I am a trained journalist. Even after my service at the National Assembly, I will still go back to my primary constituency of journalism, hence, I am very sorry over the issue,’’ Doguwa said in the interview.
‘’It was never intentional because even Abdullahi Yakubu knows the kind of person I am.
’Honestly, if there has been any journalist that seriously promoted my activities so far, it is Yakubu.
‘’Even in some instances, we write the story together, where I correct him in some of the writeups and we would be happy over the whole scenario.
‘’Also, in some cases, I come up with writeups, he would correct me, saying professionally, ‘this is wrong in journalism.’
‘’Just like I said earlier, I have known Abdullahi for over 30 years, so with this, I have publicly apologized to him because it was the word assault in the case against me that left me jittery. Because I am aware of human rights and that of a journalist.’’
‘’This is because journalists are like soldiers and police, their job is a front-line job. I have a lot of respect for them,” he said.
According to Doguwa, after apologizing to the journalist before the police, the issue has been resolved amicably as Yakubu accepted his apology.
Yakubu, who confirmed that they had been friends for over 30 years, said he had forgiven the lawmaker and would ask his lawyers to withdraw the matter before the court.
Yakubu said he had to drag the lawmaker to court to demand his right over the assault, but since he had apologised, and as a Muslim, he had forgiven Doguwa.
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