From John Adams Minna
The Chairman, Katcha Local Government Area of Niger State, Danlami Abdullahi Saku, narrowly escaped being lynched on Saturday by some youths in the area suspected to be thugs.
The youths were said to have descended on the chairman over N1.3 million he allegedly owed an elderly man in the area, who had refused to pay back.
It was gathered that the embattled chairman had collected the money from the old man for over a year now and has defied all moves by the lender to get his money back, including a threat of legal action against him.
A close source said the chairman got more than what he bargained for as he was ambushed by the youths during his visit to the town for the Sallah celebration, when attempts to retrieve the money from him turned bloody.
While our source said the youths were thugs, another insider in the area told Daily Sun that they were actually the children of the elderly man who gave the chairman the N1.3 million as loan.
The source disclosed that the chairman, who got infuriated and felt embarrassed by the actions of the youths who accosted him over the debt, allegedly slapped one of them, asking if they knew that he is the council chairman and threatened to deal with them.
It was as a result of this that the youths, alongside some of their friends, descended on the chairman, and beat him to stupor and he was rushed to the hospital. It was, however, gathered that while in the hospital receiving treatment, the chairman quickly offset part of the debt, leaving the balance of N10,000, which the elderly man decided to let go.
Attempts to reach the embattled chairman to get his side of the whole drama was not successful as calls put across to him did not go through and he did not respond to text messages sent to him.