A revelation by a member of the National Conference
that he had received a threat message from terrorists
caused a scare at the confab on Monday.
The delegate, Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), told the
conference that he received a message on his
telephone threatening an “attack bigger than
Nyanya blast” and sought the permission of the
Chairman of the confab, Justice Idris Kutigi (retd.),
to read the message.
Kutigi granted the permission and Ozekhome
accordingly read the text.
The message, which Ozekhome also forwarded to our
correspondent later, read, “News got to us that our
enemy is planning something bigger than Nyanya
blast between Tuesday and Wednesday, in Abuja.
Mind your movement and be careful. The date is
still unknown. Please, pass it around to save loved
ones.”
After listening to the text of the message, one of the
delegates, who asked not to be named, shouted, “We
are in trouble in this country. Bombing everywhere;
when will this stop? Even here, we don’t know what
is going to happen. Things are so bad in the
country. Things are so bad.”
Many of the delegates were seeing discussing the
development in hushed tones but with panic on their
faces.
None of them was willing to speak with The
PUNCH on the matter on Monday.
Another delegate, Obi Onoliefo, had on Thursday
last week, raised the issue of safety of delegates
when, having looked at the perimeter of the
National Judicial Institute, observed that there were
no security operatives manning them.
Onoliefo, therefore, called for security operatives to be
drafted to the perimeter fences to forestall insurgents
from breaking into the premises and causing
bloodshed.
Meanwhile, some hoodlums suspected to be members
of the Boko Haram sect invaded the Shani Local
Government Area of Borno State on Monday and
torched the Divisional Police Station, houses and
shops.
It was learnt that the insurgents used Improvised
Explosive Devices and petrol bombs.
The Caretaker Chairman of the council, Alhaji Modu
Walama, who was said to have escaped a series of
attacks by assassins and terrorists in recent past,
narrowly escaped being killed by the terrorists.
The insurgents were said to have attacked the family
house of Walama in Walama and killed one of his
sons.
One of our correspondents learnt that the terrorists
invaded Shani on motorcycles and bombed the
divisional police headquarters at about 2:45pm on
Monday.
The policemen on duty had fled before the attackers
reached the station.
They were said to have snatched one of the patrol
vehicles belonging to the police and set it ablaze
after they discovered that the vehicle’s engine was
faulty.
The gunmen reportedly moved from the police station
into the town and shot sporadically before fleeing
towards the Gwaskara village.
Shani is the southern part of the troubled Borno State
and about 245 kilometres drive from Maiduguri, the
state capital. It shares boundary with some parts of
Adamawa State.
A resident of Shani, Mallam Aliyu Usman, who was
among those who fled the town during the attack,
told journalists that they got news of the terrorists
lurking around the town at about 8am.
He said some women sighted the criminals on their
farmlands around Walama, on the outskirts of the
town.
The terrorists were said to have scared the women off
their farms, telling them that they had a deadly
mission to execute in some places in Shani.
All efforts to get the Police Public Relations Officer in
the state, Gideon Jubrin, for confirmation was not
successful as his phone line was inaccessible as of
the time of filing this report.
www.punchng.com/news/boko-haram-confab-delegate-receives-attack-notice/