Buratai Town, Not Ex-Army Chief Attacked, Ndume Clarifies Comment On TV

Former Senate Leader and Senator representing Borno South, Ali Ndume, has denied media reports attributed to him that former Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-.General Tukur Buratai (retd) narrowly escaped death as his convoy was attacked last Friday in Borno State by Boko Haram insurgents.

Senator Ndume reportedly made the revelation while speaking on ‘Politics Today,’ a programme on Channels TV aired on Sunday.

Ndume, in a statement on Monday, however, dismissed the media reports as misleading and misrepresentation of what he said.

The former Senate Chief Whip clarified, “It was Buratai Town in Borno State that was attacked, not the person of the erstwhile Chief of Army Staff.”

The former Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. is from Buratai Town in Biu local government area of Borno State.

The federal lawmaker further clarified that what he said on Channels Television while speaking on security was that, “Even two days ago, Buratai (town) was attacked in front of the operations base in Borno. But the soldiers stood up to them, but they (the attackers) burnt down some of our assets.

“Normally these days, they burnt assets like Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles (MRAPs), tanks, and heavy-duty machine guns that we have and sometimes they steal some of these equipment and go with it.

“The situation is getting terrible in Borno, the situation is bad in all the six geo-political zones, except in South-South. Even South-South, we are grappling with economic sabotage like oil theft.

South-West is the only region that is relatively safe.”

Ndume appealed to journalists to avoid misrepresentation in news reporting to avoid the embarrassing effect on politically-exposed individuals and the integrity of such media organisations.

“I am surprised that the town Buratai could be misconstrued as the person of General Buratai, who incidentally hails from the town,” he said.