A former Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, has decried the incessant invasion of his residence by gunmen.
Maku raised the alarm as armed hoodlums suspected to be kidnappers reportedly invaded his house on Saturday night and injured three of his security guards.
Maku, who was information minister during the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan, said he had been attacked by gunmen three times in less than a month.
Describing the state as being under siege from bandits, Maku told journalists that gunmen also invaded his father’s compound last month at Wakama and kidnapped three of his siblings, The PUNCH reports.
“The other time, they killed two of my elder brother’s children right at the residential house.
“What happened today shows clearly that our state is under siege. It took the intervention of the Army and the police deployed to Akwanga, who immediately rushed to my residence to assist us. On sighting the army, the bandits fled into the bush," the former Minister laments.
The gunmen reportedly scaled the fence to gain access to Maku's House at Ola in the Akwanga Local Government Area of Nasarawa State and shot sporadically into the air.
The latest attack, The PUNCH reports happened at about 7.50 pm.
One of the injured security guards, who spoke to the paper, described the bandits as Hausa speakers.
He said, “The situation was a terrible one. They came in numbers and started knocking on the gates while speaking Hausa, but when we observed that they were strange faces, we refused to open the gate for them.
“Because we refused to open the gate, they started shooting and later jumped the fence into the compound, and we were injured while making efforts to handle the situation.”
Meanwhile, while the state police command had yet to made any official statement on the constant attack on the former Minister, the state governor, Abdullahi Sule, has condemned the invasion.
The governor, who spoke through his Senior Special Assistant on Public Affairs, Peter Ahemba, on Sunday, expressed his deepest sympathy with Maku and his injured security guards.
Describing the incident as unfortunate, the governor said, “On behalf of the government and people of Nasarawa State, Governor Abdullahi Sule extends his deepest sympathy to the former Minister of Information over the unfortunate incident, and to the injured security personnel who were on duty at the time of the invasion."
It added that “as a responsible government, the security of lives and property as well as the general well-being of the citizens will continue to top priority of this administration.”