attack earlier on Sunday on his way out of Baga.
Zulum had departed Baga at about 10:30 after a two-day visit to receive
indigenes of the town back home after 21 months of exile.
Few kilometers away from Baga, unknown assailants believed to be Boko
Haram opened fire on the escort of the governor.
The convoy was being escorted out of Baga by the military who replied to
the gunshots and cleared the way for the governor.
The attack happened barely 48 hours after Borno State Government
officials were ambushed on the same route while traveling to Baga to
join the governor who had flown in via an Air Force chopper.
Reporters on the ill-fated convoy say sixteen persons were confirmed
dead while the whereabouts of an unspecified number of people can still
not be accounted for.
Members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) working
with the state government’s resettlement committee to clear shrubs from
the road for clearer vision, also reportedly disappeared after the
attack.
Zulum said in an interview in Baga before taking his leave, that he is
saddened by the lives lost during the Friday attack, and pledged to
support their bereaved families.
The governor has since arrived Maiduguri, the capital city after
successfully performing the resettlement issue that took him to Baga.