Who wants former minister Dr. Yakubu Lame dead?
The perennial feud at the Tafawa Balewa axis of the state leading to burning of places of worships, the Toro Tilden Fulani border axis with the Plateau and also the Azare axis and the influx of refugees from the neighbouring states for which the infiltration of hoodlums may not be ruled out also combined to […]
The perennial feud at the Tafawa Balewa axis of the state leading to burning of places of worships, the Toro Tilden Fulani border axis with the Plateau and also the Azare axis and the influx of refugees from the neighbouring states for which the infiltration of hoodlums may not be ruled out also combined to give men of the state police command sleepless nights.
However, one security challenge that Aduba did not foresaw is attacks on high profile personalities in the state hitherto respected and revered. Miscreants and armed robbers have become daring in recent past with attacks on wards and village heads in remote locations with dane guns, machetes and other local weapons and the police had rise to the occasion. However, the attack sometimes last week, of the residence of the former Minister of Police Affairs, Dr. Ibrahim Yakubu Lame will shock the police for a long time. The mode of the attack and the weapon used will also continue to baffle them. Although the former minister was away in Saudi Arabia observing the lesser hajj and his family members were not affected, the level of devastation was monumental. It was the first time an explosive of that magnitude will be targeted at an individual of high class standing. Many have continue to question the motive for the attack.
Dr. Lame served the administration of the late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua. He is a politician that served in many capacities at both state and federal levels. He was Commissioner for Education, Senior Special Assistant to former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Narcotics and Financial Crime, Secretary of Arewa Union, a onetime Senator representing Bauchi South Senatorial district, Director General of Ex Governor Bukola Saraki Presidential Campaign organization in the last general election before decamping to the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) where he contested the Senatorial election and lost to PDP in Bauchi State.
Lame has been living happily with his family in Bauchi State until last Sunday night when unknown person detonated explosives at his residence. Though no group or person has claimed responsibility for the attack and security operatives were yet to arrest any suspect in connection with it, different insinuations are being peddled around. Some are pointing accusing fingers at his perceived political enemies, others believed the attack is the handwork of miscreants and hoodlums, while others blamed the Jama’atu Ahlussunnati lidda’awati Waljihad popularly referred to as Boko Haram.
A relative of Dr. Lame told Weekly Trust that “Dr. Lame, a few months back, received a threat from unknown person who claimed to be a member of the Boko Haram sect demanding money from him and threatening that if he did not meet their demand, they will kill him. We gave the security agents the numbers of the telephone used by the unknown person.”
Another source believed that it is natural that Lame will have problem with the Boko Haram sect members because their leader late Mohammed Yusuf was captured and killed during his tenure as Minister of Police Affairs.
A close associate or Dr Lame, Al’amin Sani Mohammed, however, said “ it was not true that the former minister supported the execution of late Mohammed Yusuf, because when he was captured, he announced that he was handed over to the police alive and when he was executed, Lame blamed the police for killing him and even advised late President Yar’adua to set up a committee to investigate the matter. He said the committee’s finding would have been made public if Lame was still a minister.
Those who blamed his political opponents for trying to kill him point at the former minister’s growing popularity as a lover of his people to buttress their point. They said Lame is the only elite who is investing in the state. They said the establishment of a primary and secondary schools as well as the proposition by the former minister to establish a university will provoke such actions by his counterparts who invest outside the state.
Meanwhile, the Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Mohammed Barau told Weekly Trust in Bauchi that, “we have commenced investigation into the last Sunday incident and we assuring that the culprit will be brought to book.”