New Telegraph

Buhari recounts near-death experience in 2014

…praises El-Rufai, ‘I can no longer find my way around Kaduna’

President Muhammadu Buhari has commended the Kaduna State Governor Mallam Nasir El- Rufai for his commitment towards changing the landscape of the state. This was as he said the governor has been successful in his urban renewal programme across the state, addingthathecouldnolonger find his way around the city, due to its transformation.

Buhari, who is on a twoday working visit to Kaduna State to commission some of the state’s urban renewal projects, spoke at the Murtala Muhammed Square in the centre of the city. The President also narrated briefly how he escaped a bomb blast in Kaduna near the bridge which was one of the projects that he commissioned. Before arriving at the Murtala Square, President Buhari, accompanied by El-Rufai, had flown to Kafanchan in the morning to commission the Emir Road, Katsina Road and Dan-Haya Road in Kafanchan, in the southern part of the state.

He, however, returned to Kaduna, the state capital around noon, and immediately commissioned the remodelled Murtala Square, a sporting, event and recreational centre. Addressing residents and stakeholders President Buhari said he can no longer find his way around Kaduna, even as a person who has lived in the city for a long time and commended El-Rufai, saying: “You have committed yourself to changing Kaduna and you have been very successful and people throughout the country are appreciating it. You are writing your history in gold. I congratulate you for your achievements so far.”

The president commissioned some of the completed urban renewal road projects, including the reconstructed Kawo Flyover, the 5.6km Aliyu Makama Road, the multi-storey Basic Education Mega-School in Lokoja Road in Rigasa, and the dualised Yakubu Gowon Way and Leventis Underpass. Buhari also commissionedtheInfectiousDisease Hospital in Mando, after Dr. Hadiza Balarabe, Deputy Governor of Kaduna State, explained the idea behind the project. President Muhammadu Buhari also narrated how he narrowly escaped being killed by a bomb blast near the Kawo Bridge, while travelling to Katsina State in July 2014. The president recalled: “They wanted to blow me up. But my escort somehow stopped them. Before we came to this bridge they became so desperate and there was a small market or something like this here.”

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