The Plateau Progressive Movement (PPM) has alleged that Senator Shehu Umar Buba, Chairman of the Senate Committee on National Security and Intelligence, has links with bandits and criminal elements.

The group, in a statement signed by its Publicity Secretary, Comrade Dachum Daniel Kajang, said the lawmaker’s alleged actions had undermined peace and security in Toro and Tafawa Balewa local government areas of Bauchi state, and called for his immediate removal as chairman of the committee.

According to PPM, “Recent revelations have shed light on Senator Buba’s alarming involvement with bandits and other criminal elements, casting a long shadow over his role as a leader entrusted with safeguarding national security.”

The group alleged that the senator facilitated the transportation of injured bandit fighters for medical treatment and cited a video purportedly showing the movement of arms and motorcycles from his residence to Zamfara.

PPM said, “This blatant disregard for law and order emboldens criminal elements and undermines the efforts of security forces working tirelessly to restore peace and stability to our communities.”

Reacting, Comrade Sabo Muhammad, Special Adviser on Media and Communications to Senator Buba, described the allegations as “unsubstantiated” and a “sponsored campaign to smear his rising political standing.”

He said the claims were “malicious and lack insight into the happenings in Bauchi State,” noting that the senator has been committed to non-kinetic approaches to ending banditry in the state.

Muhammad challenged the group to name any of the alleged bandits said to have been treated, as well as the hospitals involved, to substantiate their claims.

He said there was relative peace in Toro and Tafawa Balewa and that insecurity in neighbouring Plateau State should not be attributed to the senator.

“This calumny will not deter his responsibility at the Senate, and in discharging his responsibility as the only APC senator in Bauchi State,” he said.