Nigeria’s President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, has cut short his trip to South Africa and aborted his planned visit to Namibia.

Presidential spokesman Dr. Reuben Abati who announced this attributed it to the growing security challenges confronting Nigeria.

“Due to security situation at home, Pres. Jonathan cuts short his trip to South Africa. Visit to Namibia also aborted. On his way back home,” Abati, who is Jonathan’s Special Adviser on Media & Publicity, said early this afternoon.

Jonathan had left Abuja for South Africa on Monday (May 7), only for 55 persons, among them 22 policemen and two soldiers, to die hours later during exchange of gunfire between government troops and members of Boko Haram Islamic militants who attacked the local prison, as well as several other government facilities, in Bama town in the north-western state of Borno.

Just as the President was condemning the attack on Tuesday, militant worshippers of a local deity called Ombatse in north-central Nassarawa State ambushed a joint police and State Security Service (SSS) team answering a distress call, killing 23 of them near the state capital, Lafia.

•Photo: President Jonathan.