Boko Haram: Presidential convoytrapped in Maiduguri

President Goodluck Jonathan’s advanced team to the
Borno State capital Maiduguri, for the presidential
campaign that held on Saturday is trapped and currently
taking refuge at the Department of State Security (DSS)
command, following the attack on the city by Boko
Haram.
Those trapped are the media, security and medical
teams.
One of the trapped persons when contacted said that
both the military and civilian Joint Task Force (JTF)
were able to repelled the insurgents that had attempted
to take over control of Maiduguri and several other parts
of the state.
The President’s convoy had arrived the town on Friday
after being escorted for about 10 hours by about 10
heavily armed soldiers from Bauchi
They were billed to return to Abuja on Saturday after the
PDP campaign rally which took place at Ramat square
but stayed on the advise of Joint Task Force.
The source when contacted at about 11.40 a.m said, “we
are hiding at the DSS state command with serious
fighting going on between the insurgents and security
personnel. Security men are battling to repel the
insurgents.”
When contacted again at about 2:14p.m, he said that
Maiduguri has come under full control of Security
personnel but the security personnel were still working
on the roads and villages.
“They say they have to comb the bushes to get rid of
the insurgents and they said they might not finish today.
Meaning that we cannot leave today (yesterday)”.
According to the source, the entire convoy of the
President remains a major target of the insurgent who
are bent on attacking the team in order to embarrass the
presidency.
“Those trapped are in the president’s team are members
of the media crew, medical and security personnel. The
Protocol team took a risk and left on their own, that was
before the terrorists started advancing. We wanted to
join them but we were warned by the security guys. The
Protocol vehicle believe it’s riskier to join convoy
because it will attract the attention of the Boko Haram.
We are now regretting why we didn’t follow them. ” He
said.
The source when contacted again at 14:54 p.m said,
“Maiduguri just came under some calm now, so we were
able to get food in a nearby bus park. We are Still in the
neighbourhood of the DSS office anyway.
“The security people said they have chased the
insurgents out of town. They also attacked Konduga
which has now been reclaimed with heavy casualties on
the part of Boko Haram”.
The airport at Maiduguri is not yet open to commercial
flights. The presidential convoy had to travel of 10 hours
to Maduguri from Bauchi.