How Boko Haram Infiltrated Borno Governor's Lodge

The government of Borno State has raised the alarm over the arrest of a suspected member of Boko Haram at the Borno Governor’s Lodge in Abuja last Friday by security operatives.

The arrest of Kabiru Sokoto had led to insinuations that the state government was harbouring a key suspect in the Christmas Day bombings at Madalla, Niger State. But in a statement issued Monday by the Secretary to the Government of Borno State, Ambassador Baba Ahmed Jidda, the state government said it was a case of security breach which it is now investigating.

 
He described as “untrue, misleading, callous” attempts by “some detractors to turn the truth on its head and to try to score political points with a very serious matter of individual and state security”.

Governor Kashim Shettima, he said, immediately ordered an investigation.

Jidda wrote: “On the evening of Thursday, January 5, one Ibrahim Umar Abba, an indigene of Borno State and a post-graduate student at the University of Birmingham in the UK, called the permanent secretary of the Borno State Liaison Office in Abuja.

“He said he was scheduled to catch a British Airways flight back to the UK the following day and would like to spend the night at the Governor’s Lodge in Abuja. The permanent secretary, who at the time was in Maiduguri, granted Ibrahim Abba Umar permission to spend the night at the lodge.

“When Ibrahim Umar Abba turned up at the lodge, he came with two other persons, one of them an Air Force officer, the other a civilian. Neither of them is known to His Excellency the Governor, or to any other official of the Borno State Government. It turned out that the security agencies were on the trail of one of the three men, later identified as Kabiru Sokoto. The security agents arrived at the lodge and arrested the three ‘guests’ as well as all the staff of the Governor’s Lodge.

“I will like to state emphatically that neither His Excellency Governor Kashim Shettima nor any other top official of the Borno State Government ever knew the said Kabiru Sokoto or the other two men. In fact, their surreptitious gaining of entry into the lodge where His Excellency often stays during his visits to Abuja is a very serious breach of security which has caused acute embarrassment to the state government.

“I will also like to remind the public that in the last one year alone, many leaders of the Borno State ANPP have been assassinated by suspected members of the Jama’atu ahlus Sunnah Lid’dawa’ti wal Jihad. They include the late Awagana Ali Ngala, then North-east Vice-Chairman of ANPP; Alhaji Modu Fannami Gubio, ANPP gubernatorial candidate Borno State; Honourable Mustafa Baale, Chairman of Jere Local Government; Fannami Ngranam, ANPP Chairman for Jere Local Government; Goni Modu Sheriff, Chairman of Ngala Local Government and many others.

“How therefore can the Borno State ANPP chapter and the state government that it controls possibly be in cahoots with or knowingly shelter a suspected member of the sect thought to be behind the cold blooded murder of so many of our leaders? The truth of the matter is that the incident was a major security breach by men who have the sinister intention to cause harm to His Excellency Governor Kashim Shettima, but for the providence of God. They have been plotting this for a long time and they succeeded in penetrating the Governor’s Lodge and spending a night there due to the sloppy breach of procedure by an innocent government official.”

Meanwhile, police in Yobe State Monday confirmed the killing of three Chadian nationals in Damaturu by gunmen suspected to be members of Boko Haram. The Commissioner of Police, Tanko Lawan, said the three foreigners who were into menial jobs in the state were killed by unidentified gunmen who attacked them in Pompomari quarters of the state capital.

The state Chairman of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Reverend Garba Idi, told journalists that "two of the killed persons were Christians, which brings to 14 the total number of Christians killed so far in Damaturu and Potiskum towns this year".

In a similar development, two other persons were also killed on the same day in Old Maiduguri quarters, Maiduguri, Borno State capital, by gunmen suspected to be Boko Haram. The killing, which is the first in the recent times since the imposition of dusk to dawn curfew, was confirmed by the Field Operation Head of Peace-keeping Joint Task Force (JTF), Victor Ebhaleme.

Eyewitnesses at Old Maiduguri told newsmen that the gunmen, who came on foot, asked if the victims were Christians, and after getting an affirmative response, fired at them.

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