Borno APC Chairman, Lawmakers Scale Fence For Refusing To Pay Hired Thugs

Borno State chairman of All Progressives Congress, APC, Ali Bukar
Dalori and some members of the state House of Assembly, who were
meeting at one of the government's lodge in Maiduguri, were, Tuesday,
forced to scale the perimeter fences for dear life, following a clash
between the police attached to the former and hoodlums claiming to be
members of the vigilante group, popularly called Civilian JTF.

-Photo: A sign near a checkpoint of a vigilante group reads Civilian
J.T.F or Civilian Joint Task Force in Maiduguri,.

Young men and women have in recent weeks formed vigilante groups,
hunting down Boko Haram Islamists who have sneaked back into the city
following a military offensive on their camps on the Nigerian border
with Niger, Chad and Cameroon with remarkable success.

Although Vanguard gathered that the incident did not involved any
registered member of the Civilian JTF, the political thugs claimed to
be members of the group.

The clash, according to investigation, erupted when police attached to
the APC Chairman attempted to stop some youths, who claimed that the
APC Chairman assigned them to carry out certain assignment against
PDP, part of which was to remove all PDP billboards, flags in
Maiduguri.

The youths said after accomplishing their mission, they ended up
disappointed as they were denied payment.
'They're impatient'
Sources closed to the APC Chairman said: "The hired thugs are
impatient. When they came demanding to see the Chairman, they were
told that he is in a meeting. But they were not ready to wait.

"They told the police that they are in a hurry and that it would take
nothing for the Chairman to come out and settle them before he goes
back to continue with his meeting. But you know, the instruction was
given the police and they need to carry it out."

A Civilian JTF, Mallam Labor Yahaya, confirmed the clash, but said
members of his group were not involved in the fracas.

He said: "The thugs, who also carried Dane guns, started the shooting.
The police shot one of the rampaging youths in the leg and one of the
thugs also shot the policeman in his leg."
--Vanguard