Gunmen attack advance team of Nigerian President Buhari

• Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari will visit the place where he was born this weekend.
• His advance security convoy for the trip was ambushed by gunmen on Tuesday night.

LAGOS: The advance security convoy for President Muhammadu Buhari visit to his home state in the country’s northwest was ambushed by gunmen, as per the administration.

Buhari was not in the convoy when it was assaulted by gunmen on Tuesday night, injuring two persons and highlighting Nigeria’s precarious security situation.

This weekend, for the Muslim holiday of Sallah, Buhari will go to the place where he was born, Daura, in Katsina State.

A group of security workers, including DSS state security agents, presidential protocol and media officers, were fired on near Daura on Tuesday night, according to a statement from the presidency. The group was carrying an advance squad of security workers.

“The attackers opened fire on the convoy from ambush positions but were repelled by the military, police and DSS personnel accompanying the convoy,” it claimed.

Also Read

Nigerian police rescue dozens, including children, held in church

Nigerian police rescued dozens of people, many of them children, from a...

“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.“

At first, it was unclear who was responsible for the attack.

Nigeria’s security forces are still facing a 13-year Islamist insurgency in the country’s northeast and heavily armed criminal gangs that operate in the northwest when Buhari leaves office the following year after serving two terms.

Even though the military is working against them in the northwest and central parts of Nigeria, armed militias called “bandits” often raid villages and kidnap a lot of people for ransom.

Also Read

22 farmers kidnapped near Nigeria’s capital

Gunmen kidnap 22 farmers from their fields just outside Nigeria's capital Abuja....