A group of unidentified “bandits” attacked the advance team for Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari near his hometown of Daura on Tuesday, injuring two people.
Buhari plans to visit the area this weekend for an Islamic festival called Sallah, which commemorates Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son at God’s command, a Biblical account also revered by Muslims. The holiday is also known as Eid al-Adha.
A convoy of Buhari’s aides, media officials, and security personnel was making its way through Katsina state, en route to Daura, when gunmen attacked from prepared ambush positions.
According to Buhari’s spokesman Garba Shehu, the attackers were “repelled by the military, police, and DSS personnel accompanying the convoy.”
The DSS is the Department of State Services, Nigeria’s internal security agency. It functions as a combination of the FBI and the Secret Service, with one of its duties being the protection of government officials and visiting foreign dignitaries.
“Two persons in the convoy are receiving treatment for the minor injuries they suffered. All the other personnel, staff and vehicles made it safely to Daura,” Shehu said on Tuesday.
Katsina and neighboring northern states have a severe bandit problem, which Buhari has been criticized for neglecting. Buhari made a public promise at the beginning of this year to deploy the full strength of Nigeria’s police and military forces against the northern bandits.
Early last month, bandits wiped out the Katsina village of Kwari, kidnapping 80 of its residents and driving the other 2,000 to seek refuge in another town. The abductees included children and pregnant women.
Survivors of the Kwari attack complain the Nigerian government did not protect them or offer them any assistance after they were displaced.
In addition to attacking Buhari’s advance team on Tuesday, bandits also burned down two primary health care facilities in Katsina and forced dozens of others to close as they raided them for supplies.
Local health officials said the bandits were especially eager to steal the solar-powered refrigerators installed at the clinics for medicine storage. Some workers at the facilities were kidnapped by the bandits, but later released.
A police commander in Katsina was reportedly killed on Tuesday in a massive ambush by hundreds of bandits on motorcycles wielding AK-47 rifles. Police officials said “one other gallant officer” was killed fighting alongside the commander.
The Premium Times of Nigeria noted with great dismay that President Buhari hopped on a plane and headed for an economic summit in Senegal, the latest of ten foreign junkets he has undertaken this year while the security situation in Nigeria deteriorates. He just returned from a trip to Mali on Monday.
Presidential spokesman Femi Adesina defended Buhari’s decision to leave the country after his convoy was ambushed, arguing that canceling the trip would hand “terrorists” a victory.
“Yes, the president should go. Because there’s an international conference meant for heads of states and presidents, he should attend. You should never give in to terrorists. The moment theories begin to stop you from doing things, then we might as well throw up our hands in surrender,” Adesina said.
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