Maiduguri—Youths popularly known as Civilian Joint Task Force, JTF, who have been assisting security agencies in arresting Boko Haram suspects in Borno State, yesterday, invaded the residence of All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP, Chairman, Alhaji Mala Othman, at the New GRA, Maiduguri, the state capital, setting it ablaze.
They claimed to be looking for the Boko Haram insurgents.
This was even as a middle aged woman suspected to be a member of the Boko Haram had one of her legs shattered while trying to plant an Improvised Explosive Device, IED, on a Baga Road market square in Maiduguri.
The woman said to be carrying the improvised bomb to the area where it would have been planted, but it detonated before she reached her destination, last Sunday.
The ‘Civilian JTF’ also arrested two women with AK47 rifles at the Monday Market yesterday.
It was said that after torching the ANPP Chairman’s building, the youths proceeded to the former Governor
Ali Modu Sherrif’s multi billion Naira residence in the same GRA with the aim of also setting it on fire.
It however, took the timely intervention of the security agents guarding the house to stop the action.
The security operatives were alleged to have shot sporadically into the air to scare away the youths who scattered without accomplishing their mission.
However, the party chairman was said to have narrowly escaped being killed by his attackers as security agents reportedly whisked him away in a tinted Toyota Camry saloon car before the youths arrived.
Youths on a similar mission, had earlier invaded Othman’s house but were stopped from carrying out the action by security agents who informed them that the chairman was not in town.
The youths whose efforts had earlier been commended by Governor Kashim Shettima and other concerned individuals for helping in the arrests of several Boko Haram sect members in Maiduguri and Damaturu, the Yobe State capital in the last couple of weeks have vowed that they would arrest both Othman and former Governor Sheriff and hand them over to security agencies for appropriate action.
Vanguard reported last week that some of the Volunteer Youths went to the residence of the ANPP chairman at the new GRA, on a mission to arrest him or set his house ablaze.
It took the security operatives guarding the residence of the politician about 20 minutes of begging the aggrieved youths to drop the idea.
A reliable source told Vanguard that the ANPP chairman had reportedly been on the run since last year over the Boko Haram palaver in the state.
However, on the woman who tried to plant an explosive, an eye witness who identified herself as Abubakar Kundiri said: “We were sitting under this tree with two of my friends when the woman passed by carrying something in her bag that looked like a tin of cowbell milk. Immediately when she reached there, (pointing to the area) she bent over and put the object she was carrying on the ground.
No sooner had she stood up than we heard a loud sound and her leg was torn into pieces.
”In fact, we were very lucky to be alive as we never knew she was carrying a device which could have exploded and killed all of us,” she stated.
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