Garba Shehu: NDA attack might be politically designed to embarrass Buhari

Garba Shehu, presidential spokesperson, says the recent attack on the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) might be a ploy to embarrass the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.

TheCable had reported that gunmen attacked the NDA in the early hours of Tuesday, which resulted in the death of two officers.

The development has raised concerns on the rising insecurity in the country.

Reacting to the development on Wednesday, Shehu, in an interview on Channels Television, 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.”