of All Progressives Congress, APC,
Ali Bukar Dalori and some
members of the state House
of
Assembly, who were meeting at one
of the government’s lodge in
Maiduguri, were, Tuesday, forced
to scale the perimeter fences for
dear life, following a clash between
the police attached to the former
and hoodlums claiming to be
members of the vigilante group,
popularly called Civilian JTF.
A sign near a checkpoint of a
vigilante group reads Civilian J.T.F
or Civilian Joint Task Force in
Maiduguri,. Young men and women
have in recent weeks formed
vigilante groups, hunting down
Boko Haram Islamists who have
sneaked back into the city following
a military offensive on their camps
on the Nigerian border with Niger,
Chad and Cameroon with
remarkable success.
Although Vanguard gathered that
the incident did not involved any
registered member of the Civilian
JTF, the political thugs claimed to
be members of the group.
The clash, according to
investigation, erupted when police
attached to the APC Chairman
attempted to stop some youths, who
claimed that the APC Chairman
assigned them to carry out certain
assignment against PDP, part of
which was to remove all PDP
billboards, flags in Maiduguri.
The youths said after accomplishing
their mission, they ended up
disappointed as they were denied
payment.
‘They’re impatient’
Sources closed to the APC Chairman
said: “The hired thugs are
impatient. When they came
demanding to see the Chairman,
they were told that he is in a
meeting. But they were not ready to
wait.
“They told the police that they are
in a hurry and that it would take
nothing for the Chairman to come
out and settle them before he goes
back to continue with his meeting.
But you know, the instruction was
given the police and they need to
carry it out.”
A Civilian JTF, Mallam Labor
Yahaya, confirmed the clash, but
said members of his group were not
involved in the fracas.
He said: “The thugs, who also
carried Dane guns, started the
shooting. The police shot one of the
rampaging youths in the leg and
one of the thugs also shot the
policeman in his leg.”
Source: vanguard
