– Boko Haram fingered –
*by James Bwala and Leon Usigbe*
Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, witnessed pandemonium on Friday following the killing of All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) candidate in the forthcoming April poll, Alhaji Modi Fannani Gubio, and six other persons, including blood brother of Governor Ali Modu Sheriff, Alhaji Goni Modu Sheriff. Three others were also killed.
The men were killed by gunmen suspected to be members of the outlawed Boko Haram who have been terrorising the state. The incident occurred at about 2:15 pm when the gubernatorial candidate, accompanied by his brothers and some party faithful, visited his family house after performing the Friday Jumma’at Prayer at the Central Mosque situated at the palace of the Shehu of Borno, Alhaji Abubakar Ibn Garbai el-Kanemi in Lawan Bukar area.
According to an eyewitness, the gunmen, who came on a motorcycle, were fully armed. During the incident, a 12 year-old boy who was selling kolanut and shoe maker were also felled by the bullets. Another account stated that late Gubio was killed after he went and greeted his father and came out along with four others.
Confirming the incident, the Borno State Police Commisioner, Mohammed Jinjiri Abubakar, told newsmen that he received the information that seven people were shot dead at Lawan Bukar area.
He said he was also preparing to go out with his team to the scene of the incident. He, however, said that the command was doing everything possible to unravel the killers and that those who perpetrated such act would be investigated and brought to book .
Before his untimely death, Alhaji Gubio he was the Commissioner for Finance and Economic Development in the state and he is survived by his wife, Hajiya Hauwa, a management staff member of the United Bank for Africa (UBA), Maiduguri Main Branch and five children.
Meanwhile, President Goodluck Jonathan has said that the news of the murder, by suspected assassins, of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) gubernatorial candidate for Borno State, Alhaji Fannani Gubio, came to him as a shock.
A statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Ima Niboro, on Friday noted that the president, who is in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to attend the 16th African Union Summit, condemned the killing and wanted security agencies to find those behind it.
The president maintained that the era of do-or-die politics in Nigeria was over and those who want to take the country back to that arbitrary past had no place in Nigeria.
President Jonathan condoled with the government and people of Borno State as well as the families of those who were killed in cold blood and prayed Allah to grant repose to their souls.
