Boko Haram raze emir’s palace, attacks military bases

Suspected members of the Boko Haram were on the ram­page on Tuesday at two different military locations in the North East, killing a total of 11 people.
They also attacked the palace of the emir of Askira in Askira-Uba local government area of Borno State. on Monday. The casualty figure was not clear at press time, although an earlier attack by them on Sunday night was re­pelled They returned on Monday.
At least three bomb explosions were detonated on Tuesday at a military checkpoint in Biu town, killing eight people, and injuring several others.
The Nigerian military fired back on the attackers and killed 17 of them, a security source told Reuters.
Auwalu Ibrahim, a local pro-government vigilante, said there were children around the check­point when the blasts went off. “Everyone has been told to go home due to apprehension about the blasts,” he said.
A nurse at the Biu general hos­pital said eight bodies had been brought in from the blast. Six people were receiving treatment for wounds, she added.
In a separate attack bearing the hallmarks of the militant group, a suicide bomber blew himself up in a restaurant in Potiskum, Yobe State, killing three people and wounding 12, a hospital source said.
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of people marched through Ni­ger’s capital Niamey on Tuesday to support their military follow­ing a series of Boko Haram at­tacks along the Nigeria border.
Nigerian soldiers recaptured two towns on Monday as U.S. and regional troops began war games in neighbouring Chad in a grow­ing international campaign.
Nigerien President, Mama­hadou Issoufou, boasted that his country would “be the tomb” of the terrorist sect.
President Issoufou addressing thousands of countrymen who staged a protest against the sect.

Gov Lamido: Obasanjo is our father, let’s beg him

Jigawa State Gover­nor, Alhaji Sule Lamido, on Tuesday had a word of advice for President Good­luck Jonathan who may be considering a fight tothe finish with former President Olusegun Obasanjo: “Don’t!”
The governor, who visited the President,
asserted that former President Olusegun Obasanjo, regardless of perceived shortcomings, was still father to the current genera­tion of politicians in the country because he made all of them.
Accordingly, he said they needed to apologise to the former president as his children, if they fell short of his expectations.
The governor spoke at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, while fielding questions from State House correspondents after a meeting with President Jona­than.
Lamido”s position was a radi­cal departure from the barage of criticisms that had trailed Obasanjo’s dumping of the rul­ing Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the shredding of his membership card publicly.
He said: “Baba is more than a party man. He is an icon, a na­tional symbol and a leader and an inventor, a creator of all the institutions today in Nigeria. From the Presidency to the gov­ernors who are his own sons, are all his creations. And so, when a father is angry with his own children, we will only say we are sorry to him. But then, we cannot be renounced for whatever it is.
“If you do any political DNA of our blood, you will find his blood in us. No matter what we are, we may not be able to live up to his expectations. We might have made some mistakes, but abandoning us is not the solu­tion because the country is first before anything else.
“So, he is our baba even up to the President. Baba is our baba no matter what. He is angry with us, but then, what do we do? He gave us the life at a time when Nigerians were fighting us, he stood for us. Since 2011, in 2007, he stood firm for us. He is our father. And so, if we made some mistakes, we are only human because we are heading human institutions.
“And I think by the time he re­flects, how could he abandon his own children like that. Wherever we are, we are right in his heart. He feels for us, he cares for us.”
On whether PDP leaders would go back to Obasanjo to persuade him for reconciliation, Lamido said such things are not done or announced in the media.