B’Haram eyes Mubi after hitting Obasanjo’s son

After repelling the Nigerian military’s attempt to flush them out of Michika during which the son of former President Olusegun Obasanjo was reportedly injured, Boko Haram militants are now targeting Mubi, Adamawa state, in what could be their biggest prize yet.

Mubi is the home town of Air Chief Marshall Alex Badeh, the chief of defence staff who is the most senior military officer overseeing the war against the insurgents.

Security sources told TheCable that having launched successful attacks on Gulak and Michika ─ with unconfirmed reports of beheadings ─ the terrorists are now believed to be aiming for Mubi.

Already, the Adamawa State University in Mubi has been shut down by the school authorities in anticipation of the invasion by the insurgents who have announced their intention to establish an Islamic state in Nigeria ─ a copycat of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

Mubi is a mere 30 minutes away from Michika by car, and residents are now fleeing to Yola, the state capital.

On Monday, Lt-Colonel Adeboye Obasanjo was shot by the militants, according to Sahara Reporters.

The younger Obasanjo, who was leading a platoon against Boko Haram militants at Baza, was “seriously injured” in his legs and had been taken to the hospital for treatment.

The soldier, whose father is currently in Singapore, was with the 3rd Division in Jos, Plateau state.

The website said Lieutenant Agwu of the 234 battalion; General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the 3rd Division, Major Gen JS Zaruwa; and Colonel Victor Ebhaleme, brigade-commander of the 23rd Army brigade in Yola, were all together advancing towards Michika when the insurgents struck.

The attack resulted in the death of 24 soldiers, and the capture of the Army’s armoured tank by the militants, it said.

After the attack, the army was said to have transferred its weapons from Mubi to the brigade headquarters in Yola, Adamawa state, leaving Mubi vulnerable to attack.

As a former president, Obasanjo was involved in failed attempts to broker a peace deal between Boko Haram and the federal government.

In 2011, after the bombing of the United Nations office in Abuja, he flew to Maiduguri to meet relatives of slain leader of the sect, Mohammed Yusuf.

But Babakura Fugu, Yusuf’s brother-in-law who received him during the visit, was murdered shortly after the ex-president’s departure

Again in May 2014, he met people believed to be relatives of senior Boko Haram fighters in an attempt to secure the release of the abducted Chibok girls, through negotiation.