Six Die In Fresh Boko Haram-Linked Violence

A former police officer and two of his friends were killed yesterday in a shootout in Maiduguri, Borno State that also killed three suspected members of the Boko Haram Islamist group.

Lieutenant Colonel Sagir Musa, spokesman for the elite unit hunting down Boko Haram members, said militants attacked soldiers in the city of Maiduguri in a raid launched late Saturday, triggering a fierce gun battle that lasted until early Sunday.

“The attack was repelled. Sect members retreated through narrow paths to different locations only to reorganise and shot dead a retired police inspector and two of his friends right in front of his house.”

Musa said three Boko Haram members were killed in the shootout.

One resident said about 20 gunmen attacked a police station with rifles and explosives.

“There was a shootout that continued throughout the night and around 200 residents were forced to lie on their faces along the streets to avoid being caught in crossfire,” he said.

Another local man said he saw six dead bodies.

“The shooting continued throughout the night, we did not sleep,” he said.

Boko Haram, blamed for a wave of attacks mainly in northern Nigeria, has targeted mostly the police and other symbols of authority in Africa’s most populous nation, but also churches.

Although its specific aims remain largely unclear, violence by the sect since mid-2009 has claimed more than 1,000 lives, including more than 300 this year alone, according to rights groups and an AFP count.

“Our troop are in pursuit of the sect members and further information would be communicated, as the situation is under control,” the JTF spokesman said.

Meanwhile, the Special Task Force (STF) maintaining peace in Plateau State yesterday paraded a man suspected to be fabricating guns in Jos.

Also arrested were two car snatchers and two other suspects who allegedly stole NITEL cables.

Capt. Markus Mdahyelya, STF media officer, told newsmen in Jos yesterday while parading the suspects, that the gun maker was arrested at Shen village in Bukuru area of the metropolis at about 8:30 a.m. on March 24.

The spokesman said two students of University of Jos were also arrested while in possession of a stolen Toyota Corolla car, registered Lagos ES 948 FST.

He said that the suspects had confessed that they snatched the car from one Mr Penni Vakkai in Rayfield, Jos at gun point.

Also paraded were two other suspects, apprehended in the metropolis.

Mdahyelya  gave the registration numbers of the buses as Adamawa AA 506 FUR and Bauchi XB 389 KTG.

Another suspect who allegedly impersonated a military officer and a drug user, arrested with substances suspected to be Indian hemp, were also paraded.

The STF spokesman thanked Plateau residents for their cooperation, especially in volunteering vital information which had aided efforts to rid the state of miscreants.