L-R: Mr Vincent Udoye, Head of Maritime Safety and Seafarers Standard Department, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (Nimasa), Capt. Bala Agaba and representative of Nimasa Director-General and Mr Warriedi Enisuoh, Director, Shipping Development, at a world news conference on Transforming Nigeria Maritime Industry in Lagos last Wednesday. Photo: NAN

No fewer than eight persons have been killed and a major bridge destroyed in Yobe State when gunmen suspected to be members of the Boko Haram sect invaded Katarko Village in Gujba Local Government Area of the state on Monday night.
The gunmen, who stormed the community in large numbers, overpowered the soldiers at a check post not very far from the village.
A resident of Katarko, who gave his name as Lawan Ali, told newsmen that the gunmen “came at about 7:30 p.m.
“They stormed our village with some vehicles and many motorcycles, shooting and chanting ‘Allahu Akbar’ (God is Great). Some of them could be mistaken for solders because of their dressing, which is mostly like that of the soldiers’ khaki. The soldiers in Katarko had to flee after seeing the large number of the attackers”.
“After attacking the village and killing about eight persons and injuring some others, we later heard a thunderous explosion at the location of the bridge; we all fled into the bush. But in the morning, we later found out that the bridge had been destroyed with bombs”, he added.
He continued that with such development, “in the next weeks to come, Katarko would be cut off and that part of Yobe State would no longer be accessible because the river will fill its bank and motorists will find it difficult”, he added.
Meanwhile, cholera, an acute infectious disease, has hit the two camps in Biu Local Government Area of Borno State, where refugees who fled their homes in Damboa Local Government area of the state as a result of attacks by the Islamic sect, Boko Haram are taking shelter.
The Tide source learnt that the two camps housing over 11,000 refugees need immediate medical intervention as a result of the spread of the diseases.
According to reports in Biu, the camps have started witnessing a number of victims of cholera.
A resident of Biu, Mallam Habu Isa, told newsmen that the camp at one of the Primary Schools in Biu and the one at Government Girls’ Secondary School in Biu town were begging for immediate assistance from the Borno State Government.
He said that some medical personnel from Maiduguri, were at the camps to control the menace, lamenting that they left after two days, while the disease has continued to ravage the two camps.
He expressed worry that the disease may spread to people within the local government if not controlled.
Biu is about 187 kilometres from Maiduguri along the Damboa axis, but the continuous attack on travellers by the Boko Haram insurgents, along Damboa route to Biu, has made coming to Biu from Maiduguri, a suicide mission.
Travellers from Maiduguri to Biu in the state have to go through Potiskum to Gombe before getting to Biu, a distance which is now about 420 kilometres journey.
It could be recalled that since the displacement of the people living in Damboa by the Islamic sect, Boko Haram, about 15, 300 refugees have been received at a camp in Maiduguri, about 13,050 at a camp in Gombe, about 11,000 in Biu, in addition to others who fled to Chibok and to the Cameroon border.