Few days after Boko Haram killed several persons in Borno in a suicide bomb attack, the group has again struck, killing scores. Below is Punch’s account.
Again the outlawed Boko Haram sect attacked Banki, a border town in Bama Local Government Area of Bornu State killing people at will, moment after they sacked the only police station in the town.
Though details of the number of casualties was not available as of the time of filing this report, the Borno State Commissioner of Police, Lawan Tanko, told journalists that the terrorists killed a policeman and injured many people.
However, some residents who spoke on condition of anonymity, said many people were killed by the sect members, who went from house to house slitting their victims’ throats in the siege that lasted over an hour in the earlier hours of Wednesday.
This latest attack was not the first on the town, as it has been variously attacked by the sect in similar fashion.
Residents told journalists in Maiduguri on Thursday that the attackers rode on motorcycles and Hilux Toyota vehicles into the town from nearby bush.
They added that the attackers, who were armed with sophisticated weapons, attacked the police station first before they started killing residents.
One of the survivors, John Samuel, who spoke to journalists in Maiduguri said, “They drove from the nearby bush using motorcycles and carrying sophisticated weapons around 2am.”
He said that the attackers used rocket propellers to attack the station which caught fire immediately.
“Some of the policemen tried to engage them in a shoot out but they realised that the invaders had superior weapons so they had to run,” he said.
Samuel said that the attackers also raided homes killing and maiming residents before they fled the town through a bush path.
The state Commissioner of Police, Alhaji Lawal Tanko, who confirmed the attack, told journalists that, “I can confirm there was an attack on Banki town by suspected members of the Boko Haram group in the early hours of Wednesday in which my station in Banki was partially affected. I lost an officer and some sustained injuries.”
Meanwhile, the Borno-based vigilance group, the Civilian JTF, has called on the 7 Division, Nigerian Army, to relax the curfew in Maiduguri, to enable it to contribute more in checkmating suspected terrorists.
Punch
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