by Isi Esene

The Yobe State Deputy Governor, Abubakar Aliyu, whose convoy was shot at on Saturday at a checkpoint while returning from his farm, said the police corporal who opened fire on his convoy was drunk.

He made this clarification through his press secretary, Musa Alaraba, who said it was untrue that the policeman, identified as Mohammed Aliyu, mistook the State Security Service (SSS) vehicle in his convoy for an intruder.

The governor was said to be in a convoy of several cars while returning from Maisandari, a town located in the outskirts of the state capital, Damaturu.

The deputy governor said, “There was no attempted attack on me by external forces. The policeman that fired gunshot while my convoy was passing by at the checkpoint was not in his senses. The intelligence report I gathered revealed that he had consumed alcohol and other psychotropic substances.

“The fact is that there were five vehicles in all in the convoy: a black Hilux with armed policemen was in the front; then my vehicle, followed by a Peugeot 406 conveying the operatives of the State Security Service (SSS); then the white Hilux of my ADC and finally, another Hilux conveying policemen.

“Our convoy passed through the same checkpoint and came back within 30 minutes but the overzealous policeman ignorantly fired the gunshot.

“There were no intruders… no traffic at all at the roadblock and the SSS vehicle was following mine very closely but yet he fired… it is unfortunate but we thank God that nobody was injured. I wish to appeal to the police authorities to always scrutinize the police they send to checkpoints,” he said.

Abubakar Aliyu said he felt a need to make the public statement because media reports portrayed the incident as some sort of militant attack on his convoy.