Dark Cloud Hovers On Nigeria: Army Commanders In Trouble, Gunmen Free Prisoners, Kill Many At Islamic Celebration
Nigeria appears to be going deeper into security and political confusion about 144 inmates of prison in Koton Karfi in Kogi state were freed by gunmen who threw the prison open, just as some people were killed by unknown gunmen at an Islamic celebration in Adamawa state today.
This was even as six Commanders of the Nigerian army fighting the insurgents in the North East are believed to be facing military inquest for deserting the battle ground, thus paving the way for members of the deadly Boko Haram to take over and occupy Mubi last week. Mubi has been described as the second largest towns in Adamawa state.
The state Controller of prison, dams Omale, told newsmen today that the prison came under attack of armed “external forces’’ between 9.30 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Sunday, November 2.
He said that 145 inmates were in the prison as at the time of attack, saying that 119 of the inmates were awaiting trial while 26 were convicts. Omale said that one of the inmates was shot dead during the confusion that followed the invasion.
The controller, however, said that 12 of the inmates were either re-arrested or returned on their own, adding that police and army personnel were quickly mobilised to counter the invaders, but the damage had been done before their arrival.
However, residents of the sleepy town, which is just a 25-minute drive to Lokoja, the state capital, claimed that the attackers held sway for more than two hours.
It would be recalled that the 50-bed prison facility built in 1934 was similarly attacked in February 2012 by unknown gunmen.
The report said that 136 inmates were set free while 27 were re-arrested during the 2012 attack.
Among those freed from the prison on Sunday night were armed robbery and murder convicts.
The four cells in the prison had their iron bars removed while the record office was thoroughly ransacked.
It was also observed that the ceiling of the building was shattered and the clinic turned upside down.
Governor Idris Wada of Kogi state, in company of his deputy, Yomi Awoniyi, and the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Prisons Service, Aminu Suley, later visited the prison to assess the extent of damage.
This was even as six military commanders, including an injured Lieutenant Colonel, were arrested by the military for withdrawing from Mararaba, Michika, Madagali, Mubi and later Vimtim when Boko Haram insurgents attacked the communities last week.
It was learnt that an unspecified number of soldiers were also in detention for allegedly abandoning the communities, thereby making it easy for the insurgents to have an upper hand.
A reliable military source hinted that the movement of five of the commanders had been restricted to the officers mess in a military formation, saying: “one of them, a Leutenant Colonel, is receiving treatment at the MRS in Yola for serious injuries he sustained when the car in which he was escaping somersaulted several times.”
He said the injured officer would join his colleagues in the officers mess on recovery.
“Today, the military authorities arrested five commanders around the Mubi axis of Adamawa State. The sixth is a Lt. Colonels. Some of those arrested were at Mararaba, Madagali, Michika and other locations. I think the military leaders are saying that the soldiers did not resist the Boko Haram when they invaded the place.”
The Defence authorities are said to have already commenced investigations into the activities of all its personnel in relation with the capture of Mubi, the second largest town in Adamawa State and other supposedly “fortified locations,” including Vimtim, the home town of the Chief of Defence Staff, Alex Badeh.
The insurgents had reportedly burnt Badeh’s residence, a clinic and a civic centre in the community on Thursday.
Meanwhile, no fewer than 23 people were killed today in a suicide attack on a Shiite religious ceremony in Potiskum, Yobe state in shooting by soldiers.
A suicide bomber was said to have blown himself up amid a large crowd of Shiite Muslims holding the annual Ashura ceremony to commemorate the murder of Imam Husseyn, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed, in Karbala 1,300 years ago.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but militants from the Boko Haram Islamist group, who have waged an insurgency in the region for five years, have been responsible for previous attacks in Nigeria.
Soldiers who deployed after the blast, in the Tsohuwar Unguwa area of the town, broke into the nearby Shiite seminary and opened fire on mourners who were sheltering from the blast, killing six, said Mustapha Lawan Nasidi, leader of the Shiites in Potiskum.
“A suicide bomber detonated explosives he was carrying among a large crowd of people commemorating Ashura near our seminary, Madrasatul Fudiyya, killing 15 people and injuring more than 50 others,” Nasidi said.
“To our shock, soldiers who deployed to the scene shortly after the blast broke into the seminary, where some people had taken shelter, and opened fire on them, killing six and injuring four others,” he said. [myad]
