Fighter Jet Bomb Boko Haram Accused Senator Ndume In Borno

Senator Muhammed Ali Ndume at the weekend escaped death by the whiskers when his convey was hit by massive bombs dropped from a military fighter jet during his trip to his country home in Gwoza, which is now under siege by the Boko Haram insurgents.

It was gathered that the bombs zipped through the senator's motorcade skidding off the road, resulting in injuries, though no life was lost.

Eyewitnesses also confirmed that it was not the convoy of the senator that was hit by the bombs but the people of Pulka village who had trooped out to cheer their representative in the Senate and were thrown off the road and injured.

Ndume, who was badly shaken by the incident, said when he got in touch with the military, he was told the bomb attack was an operational blunder and that there was no intension of killing or harming him.

He told journalists yesterday at his Maiduguri residence that he was personally driving his own vehicle when the incident happened, adding that he was on his way to commiserate with his people who were attacked by Boko Haram gunmen at a border settlement called Ardoko.

He said the attack on his convoy had shown that innocent citizens were killed at various times by the military, which usually announced its successes against the insurgents.

He said: “I was on my way to Gwoza and had to stop by in Pulka village which is a few kilometres away from Gwoza to attend to some of my people who came to welcome me there. There was a military post there too and I even exchanged pleasantries with the soldiers before proceeding.

But as we began to move through Pulka I heard a massive explosion and some other ones followed. Initially, I thought it was Boko Haram insurgents who were attacking us; we even thought it was some people waiving at us from the road side that detonated the bomb.

“When we stopped, one of the army personnel who was escorting me said, ‘Oga, the bombs were from the Airforce.’ So we had to immediately return to the military post that we left some few yards behind us for a cover.

“At the military base, the soldiers there tried to establish communication with the pilot of the jet but could not get across. Then after some minutes, they said that it might be an operational blunder from the Nigerian Air Force.”

Ndume revealed that he was highly disappointed by the incident and wondered how an air force pilot fired four bombs at a moving convoy being escorted by soldiers and police on a federal highway without bothering to check with the ground forces.

“It was God that saved our lives because the bombs landed not far away from where young children were standing by the road side inside the village,” he said.

Ndume, who insisted the issue must be investigated, said he had immediately sent a message to the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Azubuike Ihejirika, who responded immediately by expressing concern and apologised for the incident.

But the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Alex Badeh, who received a similar message had not responded to him at the time he spoke to journalists, Ndume said