Nigerian Air Force lied on attack on me —Ndume

Senator Ali Ndume has put a lie on the claim by the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) that he was not attacked by any of its personnel.

He also said that contrary to NAF’s claim, his convoy narrowly escaped four bombs dropped on them, saying he was in possession of the shells of the expended bomb.
It was reported on Sunday that the senator and his convoy narrowly escaped death when one of the NAF fighter jets mistakenly fired bomb on them in Pulka on his way to Gwoza, Borno State, last Saturday.
NAF had, on Wednesday, denied the senator’s claim, saying its officers and men were thorough professionals who would never make such a blunder.
Its spokesman, Commodore Yusuf Anas, in a statement, said, “the attention of the Nigerian Air Force has been drawn to reports in some media houses which allegedly said its aircraft targeted and bombed Senator Ali Ndume’s convoy on Saturday, 11  January,  2014.
“The reports  misquoted the  Director of  Information as  having said the fighter jets mistakenly fired on the senator’s convoy. For the  avoidance of doubt, NAF aircraft did not target Senator Ndume’s convoy as alleged.”

Speaking with newsmen in Abuja on Wednesday, Ndume, who represents Borno South Senatorial District, however insisted that NAF had no basis to deny the incident because according to him, the bombing occurred in the full glare of people of the Pulka community.
He described the incident as “operational blunder by the Air Force and effort should be made to address the lack of coordination among the security agencies engaging the insurgents.”
He said he was on a visit to his constituency on that fateful day, adding that he does that on a regular basis.
“This time round, it was very specific because of the intensity of insurgency activities in Gwoza East which consists of six wards in the eastern part of my local government on the other side of the Mandara Mountain bordering Cameroon.
“There was a time when insurgents attacked a church in the area. This led to a discord between Christians and Muslims in the area.
“Before Christmas,  Christians retaliated by burning down a mosque. The situation almost degenerated into a war situation between the Christians in Goshe and the Muslims. There was loss of lives; seven people died.
“Before the deployment of troops to the area, as a leader in the community, I was called upon to initiate reconciliation between the Christians and Muslim communities.
“Initially, I thought it was Boko Haram that planted the bombs on the highway targeting me because there was a couple of people waving at us by the roadside.
“We thought the boys were the ones detonating the bombs until when a military personnel in our convoy told us that the bombs were coming from the air force aircraft.  We then ran for dear lives.
“The statement credited to the Air Force spokesman was highly unfortunate. Immediately the incident happened, nobody could reach me on phone. There was a lot of panicking in Maiduguri and Bornu State but the Pulka people were able to communicate with them,” he said.