At least, five security men-three policemen and two soldiers, as well as an unspecified number of civilians were killed on Friday as Boko Haram terrorists attacked the convoy of the Governor of Borno State, Prof. Babagana Zulum, near Monguno town.
The convoy, which convened government officials, was travelling to Baga town where Governor Zulum was to receive some internally displaced persons, IDPs, from Maiduguri, the capital.
Zulum is scheduled to receive some three thousand displaced persons today, Saturday.
However, Prof. Zulum was not in the convoy as he had travelled to Baga in an Air Force chopper. He was reported to have had the Friday prayers with troops at Baga.
Friday’s attack was the second time within two months when the governor’s convoy came under attack. The attack, like the first one, has triggered fresh worries about security situation in the north east where terrorists have carried out series of attacks against troops and soft targets, as well as countless abductions.
The area around Monguno en-route Baga is believed to be the stronghold of a splinter group of Boko Haram that dubbed itself the Islamic State of West Africa Province, ISWAP.
There were unconfirmed reports that apart from the casualties, the terrorists also ceased an Armoured Personnel Carrier belonging to the Nigeria Police Force, and certain number of government vehicles.
The governor is expected to receive about three thousand civilians who will be transported from IDP camps both in Maiduguri and Monguno on Saturday.
In July, Governor Zulum escaped death by the whiskers when his convoy came under heavy attack in Baga town. He had left Maiduguri for the northern part of the state in continuation of his administration’s food distribution programme. But his convoy came under heavy artillery fire a few kilometres to Baga.
An angry Zulum poured venom on the army over its seeming inability to dislodge the Boko Haram terrorists from Baga and its environs. He even insinuated that there was sabotage in the system which, he claimed, would never allow the war against insurgency and terrorism end.
But the military responded swiftly and strongly, debunking the governor’s claim, describing it as unfounded.
