NDA Attack: How Bandits Broke Into Five Flats

The gunmen who invaded the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) in the wee hours of Tuesday broke into five flats, it was learnt on Wednesday.

Security was beefed up around the Academy yesterday.

Military personnel stopped reporters who attempted to access the institution.

Sources said the attack was successful because guards were slow to respond.

According to them, the bandits successfully broke into five flats in the same block and swiftly withdrew before the guards could intervene.

The gunmen kidnapped Major Christopher Datong and killed a lieutenant commander, simply identified as Wulah, and a flight lieutenant, C.M. Okoronkwo.

A second lieutenant, simply identified as Onah, sustained a gunshot injury.

President Muhammadu Buhari said the attack would re-ignite the war against insurgency and banditry.

The NDA sources said the gunmen gained access and escaped by breaching the barbed wire fence of the Academy along Airport road in Afaka.

The source said: “Bushy areas around the office quarters to the fenced area is believed to have given the bandits easy concealment during the escape.

“Further assessment revealed that the gunmen’s escape route leads across the Airport road to an open farm/bush area near Gidan Gado village in Afaka.

“The gunmen are believed to have escaped either to Buruku and Maguzawa axis or the Riyawa axis in Igabi, which is known as notorious bandits hideouts.

The source said the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Gen. Lucky Irabor, accompanied by senior military officers, visited the NDA.

They were received at the Kaduna International Airport by the NDA Commandant, Maj-Gen. Ibrahim Yusuf and other senior officers of the Academy.

The Defence Headquarters remained silent on the fate of the abducted Major.

It declined to react to speculations that his body was found.

Director Defence Information, Major General Benjamin Sawyerr, said search and rescue operations were still ongoing.