Police dismiss rumour about vulture signalling impending Boko Haram attack

The Police in Adamawa State on Tuesday dismissed an insinuation that a vulture found with a woman in Maiha Local Government Area could mean an impending attack by the Boko Haram insurgents.

The state Commissioner of Police, Adamu Madaki, had on Monday spoken of the seizure of the suspicious vulture following a complaint by an elder in Maiha.

Madaki had said the elder called to complain that a woman had brought a vulture and that the elder contended that the last time someone brought three vultures into Maiha, the area experienced a Boko Haram attack a few days later.

The commissioner said since the people seemed to be disturbed by the presence of the vulture, the police took it into custody.

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Asked for an update on the vulture, the state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), SP Othman Abubakar, told our correspondent on Tuesday afternoon that the vulture in question had been in the said house in Maiha long enough for Boko Haram to have attacked Maiha if the insinuation had any substance.

“It is a rumour. There is no substance in it,” the superintendent of police said, urging the people of Maiha to keep calm about it.

Maiha, a town and local government area in the northern part of Adamawa State, is one of the seven LGAs once seized by Boko Haram insurgents. They had occupied Maiha, Madagali, Michika, Mubi North, Mubi South, Hong and Gonbi from July 2014 until soldiers liberated the LGAs just before the 2015 general elections.

Madagali, Michika, and to a smaller extent Maiha, have experienced Boko Haram attacks a number of times since then.