By Ade Johnson-
Gunmen on Friday attacked officials of the 7 Guards Battalion of the Nigerian Army Presidential Guards Brigade, killing eight personnel.
The incident reportedly took place late on Friday night around the Bwari Area Council of Abuja, left three soldiers wounded and eight personnel killed.
Two of the murdered personnel were officers, including a captain and lieutenant, while the remaining were soldiers.
Sources from the army say the main aim of the terrorists was to attack the Nigerian Law School in Bwari to rein terror upon students there.
The soldiers were reportedly ambushed after they visited the Nigeria Law School in Bwari , following a distressed call from the authorities of the school. The school management was said to have alerted that terrorists had dropped a letter indicating an imminent attack on the school.
One of our sources said, “Following the threat letter from the terrorists, the leadership of the Nigerian Law School drew the attention of the military authorities at the 7 Guards Brigade.
In a separate attack on Monday, the Nigerian government officially shut the Federal Government College, Kwali, in the Kwali Area Council of Abuja after terrorists attacked a community near the school.
The attack on the Guards Brigade, who are appointed to protect the president, comes a few weeks after terrorists launched a similar attack on a presidential convoy in Dutsinma, Katsina State, the same occasion terrorists invaded the Kuje prison in Abuja and freed hundreds of inmates, including Boko Haram suspects.
Friday’s attack also occurred two days before terrorists released a video showing them maltreating people kidnapped from the Abuja-Kaduna train.
Threat
One of the terrorists in the video threatened that his group would abduct President Buhari, Kaduna State Governor Nasiru El-Rufai and other prominent Nigerians and destabilise the country if their demands were not met.
The terrorists also threatened to kill and sell some of the remaining Abuja-Kaduna train passengers in their custody.
“This is our message to the government of Nigeria and just as you have seen these people here, by God’s grace, you will see your leaders; your senators and governors will come before us. These ones you are seeing here, we will keep some as our slaves and sell them off just as our Imam told you in the past.
“Just like the Chibok girls that were sold off, we will equally sell these ones as slaves. If you don’t adhere to our demands, we will kill the ones we need to kill and sell the remaining. By God’s grace, El-Rufai, Buhari, we will bring you here,” the terrorist said in the video.
The level of terrorist attacks in Nigeria has become a headache for ordinary citizens residing in the country who are momentarily made to feel like they are in a war zone if they find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time.
With elections coming up next year in Africa’s most populous country, there are fears that terrorists could wreak harvoc in the country