Maiduguri – Suspected Boko Haram members late on Wednesday set the office of the Borno State National Programme on Immunisation (NPI) in Unguwan Doki in Maiduguri ablaze.

Residents of the place, in Maiduguri on Thursday, said that the  fanatics attacked the building with explosives.

“We were at home watching the Nigeria/Argentina match when we heard large bang around 7.23 p.m.

“Shortly after, we began to hear sporadic gunshots outside, followed by noise of people running
helter and shelter outside,” Malam Bello Isa said.

Isa said that the incident was followed by a large smoke coming out of the building after it was gutted by fire.

Madam Lizzy Umoh,  another resident, corroborated Isa’s claim, saying that  the fire subsequently, engulfed nearby stores where all items were completely destroyed.

Also, Malam Usman Musa, a security guard, said that some individuals entered the building around 7 p.m. and set the place ablaze.

“They chased out the old security man immediately they got in and planted explosives which went off and set the place on fire,” Musa said.

When contacted, Malam Lawal Abdullahi, the Police Public Relations Officer ruled out sabotage in the incident.

“It was purely a fire incident and the police have already commenced investigations into the cause.

“There was no life lost but we are yet to quantify the value of the property lost,” Abdullahi said.

The fire incident is a major setback to the the Borno Government as hundreds of vaccines meant to tackle child-killer diseases have been destroyed.

Police to deploy more personnel to flashpoints
Abuja  – The police have said that more security personnel will soon be deployed to restore peace in Borno, Bauchi and Kaduna States as they have become “flashpoints.’’

Mr Olusola Amore, Force Public Relations Officer, gave the hint in an interview on Thursday in Abuja.

“We are about deploying increased number of personnel to those states that we consider as flashpoints and definitely we have those states: Borno State, Bauchi State and Kaduna State that is also trying to join the flashpoints.

“But essentially, you know it is Borno and Bauchi. We will be able to overcome the moment we deploy more men and have more intelligence.’’

Amore also dismissed the insinuation in certain quarters that there were bombings all over the country, but added that there were security challenges in some states.

“The picture being painted is that there is bombing all over the place. There is no bombing all over the place because I think we have 36 states including the FCT. I don’t think we have bombing in 10 states which will be one-third of the federation.

“The police force had earlier said we have our flashpoints, some states that we referred to as flashpoints where we have some security threats.’’

Amore maintained that with the deployment more personnel and intelligence to those flashpoints, the security challenges would be overcome adding that the force existed to overcome those challenges.

“If you look back, our immediate past security challenge was kidnapping in the south-east; did you hear of that again? We have been able to overcome that and this one (bombing) again, we are going to overcome,’’ he said.

He said security was everybody’s business and not that of the police alone; and appealed to the public to give useful information that could lead to the arrest of criminally-minded elements in the society.

Amore stressed that it was only a criminal few that were disturbing the peace of the rest of Nigerians.

-Vanguard

Posted by admin on Jun 2 2011. Filed under Borno, Latest Politics, State News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry