Boko Haram: 70 killed again in Borno

SOLDIERS have taken over Gajiram town, in Nganzai Local Government Area of Borno State, following an attack on the community by suspected members of the Boko Haram sect, during which not less than 70 persons were killed, Saturday Tribune learnt in Maiduguri.

A local, Malam Zannah Gajiram, told Saturday Tribune that the sect members burnt down the local government secretariat, a Junior Secondary School, a 20-unit housing estate, a police station and a military post as they sacked the whole community.

According to him, the insurgents stormed the community Tuesday night and ravaged the community till Wednesday morning, destroying almost all the public buildings and houses belonging to politicians from the local government.

He said, “We learnt that not less than 40 innocent civilians were killed by the insurgents while over 30 of the insurgents were said to have been killed when military fighter helicopters arrived on Wednesday.

“As of yesterday (Thursday), the whole of Gajiram had been under military control, with soldiers conducting house-to-house searches. I cannot tell you whether or not arrests had been made as at the time we left Gajiram, but I am sure the military would have made several arrests by now.”

In another development, suspected members of the sect were said to have come out in their hundreds blocking the Maiduguri-Biu highway, killing several innocent civilians, including a Special Adviser to the Borno State Governor, Alhaji Mohammed Sani.

Saturday Tribune learnt that Sani (popularly called A. A. Banje) left Maiduguri on Thursday and was heading to Biu in a red Peugeot 406 saloon when he was stopped by the insurgents and killed, along with others, at Bulabulin Ngaura, a village in Konduga Local Government Area of Borno State, about 50 kilometres from Maiduguri, the state capital.

It was reported that the truckloads of mobile policemen that were dispatched to the scene to checkmate the insurgents were forced to return to Maiduguri, having been overwhelmed.

Saturday Tribune made several unsuccessful attempts to get the Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Gideon Jibril, to comment on the incident on Friday.

But commenting on the attack in Gajiram and Bulabulin Ngaura of Nganzai and Konduga local government areas, spokesman of the 7 Division, Nigerian Army in Borno, Lt.-Col. Sagir Musa, told newsmen in Maiduguri that troops of 5 Brigade of 7 Division in Monguno effectively repelled the insurgents and pursued them to their camps and destroyed the camps with air support.

He said about 50 of the terrorists were killed in the shootout and that the communities (Gajiram and Ngaura) had been rescued from the Boko Haram terrorists.

Sagir could not confirm the exact number of civilians killed by the terrorists, but said the troops were pursuing the remaining fleeing terrorists “in all possible escaped routes.”

The Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-General Azubuike Ihejirika, who was also in Maiduguri, commended the youth volunteers in Borno for their support to the Nigerian Army in fighting the insurgents.

Addressing newsmen at the end of his one-day working visit to Maiduguri on Friday, Ihejirika said, “I wish to commend the youth volunteers for their support in fighting the insurgency. I also wish to commend the Shehu of Borno and the entire people for their support and assistance.”

He said he was in the state capital to see how well the newly established 7th Division of the Nigerian Army was settling down