Soldiers run as boko haram attack

last Tuesday it was Yobe State where 59
schoolchildren were massacred. On Wednesday,
the bloodletting extended to Adamawa State
where Boko Haram terrorists, armed with rocket-
propelled grenades nearly sacked four
communities.
An official death toll in the attacks was not
available as of 9.40pm on Thursday. But the
British Broadcasting Corporation Hausa Service
put it at 37 while the Agence France Presse
reported 33.

Banks, shops, part of a local government
secretariat and houses were reported to have
been looted and burnt during the six-hour
simultenous raids on the three communities –
Michika, Gulak , Shuwa and Krichinga – by
the militants.
It was gathered that in Shuwa, Madagali Local
Government Area, a repeat of the Yobe massacre
was averted when the insurgents attacked the
Christians Teacher College, Christian Secondary
School and a Catholic Convent.
A resident told said that the head of the
Christian Secondary School, on hearing gunshots
in the community, advised his pupils to run into
nearby bushes to avoid being killed by the
terrorists.
The resident, who declined to give his name,
added that when the hoodlums eventually
arrived and saw the school deserted, they burnt
down almost all the structures on the premises.
He however did not say if all the pupils came out
of the bushes unhurt since the incident took place
at night.
A pastor in Shuwa told the AFP that soldiers
retreated when the armed insurgents invaded the
community.
“When the soldiers at the military checkpoints saw
the number of the attackers, they retreated into
the nearby bushes as the gunmen operated
without challenge during the operation that lasted
throughout the night,” the cleric said.
It was also gathered that among the over 20
persons killed in Shuwa, was a priest at St.
Augustine Catholic Church.
The home of a former commissioner in the state,
Idris Nuhu, was among those burnt in the
community.
In Michika, Michika LGA, another group of Boko
Haram gunmen burnt three banks, a police
station, part of the Michika LGA secretariat and
shops.
A resident, who identified himself simply as Fide,
told the News Agency of Nigeria, that the
attackers, who arrived in nine vans firing guns
and throwing explosives, killed a banker and a
villager.
Fide said, “They burnt three banks, a police
station, shops and part of the Michika LGA
secretariat.
“One of the dead body is that of a member of
staff of the Bank of Agriculture.”
Some other residents of Michika said they slept
in the hills and nearby bushes during the
mayhem that lasted for about five hours.
The BBC Hausa Service quoted witnesses as
saying that some of those killed in Michika and
Shuwa either had gunshot wounds or had their
throats slit.
The Chairman of the Michika LGA, Ulama Maina,
confirmed to journalists that banks, police station,
shops and some houses were torched.
Maina however did not give the casualty figure.
The spokesman for the 23rd Armoured Brigade,
Yola, Capt. Ja’afaru Nuhu, who also confirmed
that communities in Madagali and Michika LGAs
were attacked, told NAN that details of the
incident would be released at a later stage.
Grace Hassan, an indigene of Michika, told The
Punch that the attacks that started at about 8pm
lasted till 2am, adding that information at her
disposal indicated that the mayhem sent fears
into the hearts of residents of Lassa, a
neighbouring town in Borno State.
According to her, the residents of the
community fled into the bushes to avoid being
killed.
A resident of Lassa, Peter Satumari, said many of
them fled their homes into the bushes when the
sound of gunshots and explosives were
becoming unbearable.
Satumari said, “No one could sleep because of
the sound of gunshots which we thought were
being fired from our village. We had to run
into the bushes believing they might come to
attack our houses.
“It was later on Thursday morning that we
saw smoke billowing from afar and got to know
there were attacks in Shuwa, Gulak and Michika,
all in Adamawa State.”
It was also gathered that the sect attacked
Krichinga, a village about five kilometres east of
Shuwa. There, four people lost their lives and
many were injured.
A furious governor of the state Gov. Murtala
Nyako suggested there must be collusion with
the Boko Haram terrorist network.
Nyako, a former navy chief of staff, said the
attacks ridiculed President Goodluck Jonathan’s
insistence that the military was winning the war
against Islamic militants.
When Borno state Governor Kashim Shettima
claimed that Boko Haram fighters were “better
armed and better motivated,” than the troops
fighting them, Jonathan upbraided him.
The Defence Headquarters has however
launched what it described as specialised
campaign against the Boko Haram insurgents.
The Director of Defence Information, Maj.-Gen.
Chris Olukolade, said during a news conference
in Abuja on Thursday, that the campaign had
already taken off in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa
states which are under emergency rule.
He explained that part of the arrangement was
to pursue and prevent the insurgents from
escaping from the country.
The Defence spokesman said that terrorists
fleeing towards Nigeria’s borders with Cameroun
had severely attacked some communities in
desperation for food and money.
He said, “The purpose of this briefing is to
intimate you with the elevation of counter
terrorism campaign in the country. The new
approach marks another phase in the operations
designed to further contain the terrorists and their
activities.
“The specialised campaign which has commenced
is being undertaken simultaneously in Yobe,
Borno and Adamawa states. This operation is also
in furtherance of efforts at apprehending the
terrorists and ensuring they do not escape out of
Nigeria as they are now desperate to do.
“Unfortunately, however, they have in the course
of their flight towards various borders, continued
to perpetrate mayhem as noticed in some parts of
Adamawa State yesterday (Wednesday), where
they attacked communities.
“In desperation for money and food, they looted
and burnt banks, shops and filling stations along
their way through Michika as they headed for the
Camerounian border.”
Olukolade said that three civilians and a soldier
were killed in the attacks on the Adamawa
communities while six insurgents were gunned
down and two captured alive.
He said that the DHQ believed that the
insurgents who attacked the Federal Government
College, Buni Yadi in Yobe State were the same
people behind the Michika onslaught.