A report emerging on Sunday, November 16, 2025, has revealed that Lieutenant A.M Yarima, the Nigerian Navy officer who recently gained national attention for his confrontation with the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, reportedly escaped an assassination attempt in Abuja.
The purported assassination attempt occurred just days after the viral face-off over a disputed property.
Sources quoted by media reports revealed that the attempt on Lieutenant Yarima’s life took place while he was driving in the evening.
The sources said Lieutenant Yarima was reportedly trailed by unidentified men dressed in black and riding in two unmarked Hilux vans with no number plates.
The vehicles allegedly followed him from the NIPCO Filling Station off the Line Expressway to Gado Nasco Way.
The officer’s vehicle was allegedly ambushed by unknown assailants who opened fire.
It is understood that quick thinking and professional military training enabled Lieutenant Yarima to evade his attackers, though the officer is reportedly shaken by the ordeal.
Though details are still emerging, reports indicate that the attack was professionally executed, suggesting a calculated and deliberate plan. Authorities are now said to be investigating the incident, and security around the Lieutenant has been beefed up following the alarming development.
Pan-Atlantic Kompass reports that the development comes days after Lieutenant Yarima, while on duty with other security personnel, engaged in a tense confrontation with Wike over a disputed land site in Gaduwa District.
The clash, captured on video, sparked widespread public debate and prompted intervention from the Presidency, which subsequently halted the demolition exercise at the site.
Several military veterans had slammed Wike, calling on President Bola Tinubu to sack him.
Speaking at a press conference in Kaduna on Friday, a coalition, comprising retired generals and other senior military officers from the Army, Air Force, and Navy, called on Tinubu to sack or redeploy the minister.
The group warned that should the President fail to act, it would “mobilise and occupy” the FCT ministry until Wike was removed.
Delivering the main address, a member of the Board of Trustees of the coalition, Col. Yusuf Ibrahim (retd.), said it was embarrassing for Wike to call the naval officer a fool in the viral clip.
He argued that the naval officer was acting on lawful instructions, adding that insulting him amounted to belittling state authority.
“Not everyone is worthy of certain offices they occupy. We are taken aback that a public office holder could call an officer ‘a fool’ on camera. If Wike was responsible, shouldn’t he have engaged the Chief of Naval Staff privately rather than trying to disgrace a very senior retired general? Who the hell is Wike?” Ibrahim queried.
Also, a former Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, criticised Wike over the confrontation with the military personnel.
In a statement, Buratai said the incident posed a “threat to national security” and called for an “immediate and serious response.”
“His public disparagement of a uniformed officer of the Nigerian Armed Forces transcends mere misconduct; it represents a palpable threat to national security and institutional integrity,” the statement read.
