The Senior Special Assistant to the President on media and publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, has said that the recent banditry attack on the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) might be a ploy to embarrass the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.
InsightMedia had reported that gunmen attacked the NDA permanent site in Kaduna in the early hours of Tuesday, killing two officers, and abducted one who was later found dead.
Reacting to the development while featuring on a Channels TV programme on Wednesday, Shehu said the presidency expects the military to thoroughly investigate and disclose what happened.
The presidential spokesperson, who described the incident as “sad and unfortunate”, noted that many scenarios are being painted on the circumstances that led to the incident.
He said the incident might be designed by those who want to embarrass this current administration, in the wake of the “major successes” achieved by the military in the fight against insurgency and banditry.
Shehu said the incident may also be politically-motivated.
“The president has denounced it. He is not happy about it. It is now left for the military authorities to thoroughly investigate this and bring out what happened,” he said.
“So many scenarios are being painted though. Could this be truly a criminal attempt to violate the sanctity of that military institution? Was this an opportunistic crime? Is it political? Does somebody want to embarrass the government by doing this?
“We are coming from major successes. Look at how Boko Haram is unravelling in the north; they surrendered. All of the victories that have been recorded even in the north-west — these bandits are being taken out in large numbers.
“So, in a climate — political climate — in which people seek to make political capital out of this unfortunate incident, you don’t rule in anything, you don’t rule out anything.
“We hope investigations will fully reveal what happened and why it happened.”
