Breaking News: Boko Haram Kidnaps Adamawa LG vice-chairman
Local Government Area, Bijida Yakubu, was abducted
last week by suspected Boko Haram fighters.
The Public Relations Officer of the command,
Othman Abubakar, also told the News Agency of
Nigeria, that three vigilante members, that were with
Yakubu, lost their lives in the encounter.
Abubakar, who did not give details, however, said
policemen investigating the incident had so far
recovered the vice-chairman's shoes.
The abduction was said to have been carried out by
Boko Haram members who attacked Gayafa village.
A resident of Hong, who simply identified himself as
Hussaini, said, "You know insurgents attacked the
village last week. The vice-chairman, who hails from
the village, was on an assessment visit with some
hunters when the insurgents attacked and over-
powered them.
"About seven insurgents were killed in the encounter
before they overpowered the hunters and took away
the vice-chairman."
Hussaini claimed that the abducted vice- chairman
was later allowed by his captors to call his wife with
his cell phone before the device was switched off.
Meanwhile, the Presidency on Wednesday reviewed
the ongoing military onslaught against Boko Haram
and said the success recorded so far was because
of certain factors.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on
Public Affairs, Doyin Okupe, who spoke with
journalists in Abuja, listed the deployment of
specially-trained anti-terrorism combat squad in the
troubled states and the purchase of sophisticated
military hardware as the factors.
He said, "There is a recent approval by the African
Union and the United Nations for a broad-based
international coalition to collaborate with our
military.
"This approval also gives legal authority to our
neighbours ( Chad, Niger and Cameroon) to lawfully
deploy troops on Nigerian soil while our Military can
now operate beyond our borders to hunt fleeing
terrorists; thus removing their safe haven."
Okupe also denied the media reports that President
Goodluck Jonathan said he underrated the sect.
He said, "In the first instance, what President
Jonathan said in the interview which has been
mischievously twisted by the APC(All Progressives
Congress) was that at the outset of the Boko Haram
activities, the group was treated as a local insurgent
group in view of the fact that there was scanty
information on its global network in training, funding
and supply of arms."
Also in Abuja on Wednesday, the Catholic Archbishop
of Abuja, John Cardinal Onaiyekan, said the
elections scheduled for March 28 and April 11 must
hold whether the military succeeded or failed in
wiping out insurgency in the North-East.
Onaiyekan spoke with journalists on Wednesday in
Abuja at the second and third convocation of Veritas
University.
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