Sokoto’s Escape Aimed at Embarrasing Borno Govt

Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno

By John Shiklam

Borno State Government Wednesday said the intrigues of the reported escape from the police of the alleged Boko Haram suspect, arrested at the Borno Governor’s lodge in Abuja, had justified its suspicion of a grand conspiracy intended to  embarrass the governor and government of Borno State.

Speaking in an interview with news men in Kaduna Wednesday, the state’s Commissioner for Information, Mr. Inwa Bwala, alleged that some people were employing every tactics and means to rubbish the governor, stressing that they infiltrated the Governor’s lodge in an attempt to portray the state government and its officials as sponsors of Boko Haram.

Explaining how the Boko Haram suspect got the Governor’s lodge, Bwala said “what happened was that one Ibrahim Umar Abba, an indigene of Borno state and a Post-Graduate student at the University of Birmingham in the UK called the Permanent Secretary in charge of the Borno Liaison office, Abuja, to say he needed to catch a flight to London the next day and just needed to be assisted to spend the night since he came in late and could not get where to lay his head.

“The Permanent Secretary, who was far away in Maiduguri, magnanimously granted his request. But when he turned up, he came with two other persons and the security people insisted that they were instructed to give accommodation to only one person. Eventually they allowed them, only for security agents to arrive the Lodge to arrest them the next day.

“We later heard through them (security agents) that one of the three people arrested was not only a Boko Haram suspect, but that he was the mastermind of the Madalla bombing and that they had been trailing him until his arrest. But they did not state from where they were trailing him. However, let me place on record that none of these people were known to Governor Kashim Shettima.”

According to him, mischief makers were busy setting up traps, trying to get through the back door what they could not get through the ballot box, stressing that  “on a daily basis some people have been employing every tactics, every means to rubbish the governor, having  failed in their attempt to use Court.

Bwala also expressed surprise at the purported escape of the Boko Haram suspect from the custody of the police, saying it was quiet unusual for  such a big catch who was handcuffed to escape from the police.

“How can any serious security agent allow such a ‘big catch’ to escape? Our immediate reaction to that is that these are all intrigues. The intrigues and drama of the reported escape of the alleged Boko Haram suspect arrested at the Borno Governor’s lodge in Abuja from the police, does not only sound a fairy tale, it justifies our suspicion to the effect that there may be a grand conspiracy intended to either embarrass the governor and government of Borno state or to eliminate Governor Kashim Shettima.

“If the man escaped while under escort, how can a man possibly in handcuffs outrun more than a platoon of armed policemen? Could the alleged sympathizers of Boko Haram which Mr. President said have infiltrated the security agencies facilitated the escape? Could the arrest and escape stories not be a phantom arrangement after all? From which point did the police radar pick the suspect in Zuba? Why was the whole drama headed for the Borno Governor’s lodge in particular?” Bwala queried.

SOURCE: ThisDay, 19 January 2012. http://www.thisdaylive.com/