Musdapha Ilo, Maiduguri

Angry youths on Monday in Maiduguri pelted with stone the senator representing Borno Central, Ali Modu Sheriff, for abandoning them at the peak of the insurgency that has gripped the state.

Interestingly the attack on the senator came only two days after a similar one during which the convoy of the Borno State governor Kashim Shettima, was pelted in Maiduguri with stones, sand and sachets of  water by some irate youths.

In the attack on the senator, youths lined the streets leading to the palace of the Shehu of Borno in their dozens like a welcoming party but threw stones, sachet water and other objects at his convoy

The youths alleged that Sheriff, who was governor of the state for eight years, had turned his back on them and that he was no longer welcome to the home he abandoned for years.

The senator had to be ferried into the palace of the Shehu of Borno by his security details amidst the throwing of stones by the youths who succeeded in vandalising his car.

A close political associate on the senator who does not want to be named insisted that the attack on Sheriff was the handiwork of political associates of the present governor who had alleged that the early attack on him was instigated by the former governor.

He claimed that the former governor remains a popular figure in Borno and wanted by the old and young ones alike.

In the attack on governor Shettima’s, his convoy was heading towards the Maiduguri International Airport when it ran into a mob of young men who suddenly started chanting antagonistic songs and began to haul stones, sands and satchet water directly at the governor’s vehicle.

It took the intervention of policemen of the nearby Police Crack Squad who fired canisters of tear gas into the air to disperse the mob.

After the attack, the governor’s spokesman, Isa Gusau, alleged that it was masterminded by hired political thugs brought in from outside the state.