Over 50 people including
military operatives, locals and travelers were on Tuesday evening killed by
suspected Boko Haram insurgents who dressed in military fatigues.
The insurgents launched
an attack on Benisheik town in Borno State at about 6pm and many people who
travelled to Damaturu to make phone calls were kidnapped by the group.
Some soldiers who were thought to have been killed by the
insurgents in crossfire reappeared yesterday. They fled to take cover when they
ran out of ammunition.
Witnesses said the over 200 insurgents were dressed in the latest
uniforms being used by the military deployed to Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states
shortly after the declaration of state of emergency by President Goodluck
Jonathan in May.
“The attackers surrounded the whole of Benisheikh. They came from
all directions, some of them with rocket launchers, some with Ak47 rifles and
others with improvised bombs,” a resident of the town who identified himself as
Bunu said.
Our correspondents who visited the town yesterday report that the
insurgents bombed the local government secretariat, the military formation as
well as the offices of the Federal Road Safety Corps in the town.
Residents said over 100 houses, shops and other business premises
including tractors were set ablaze by the insurgents that laid siege on the
town.
On the highway to Maiduguri, which links Borno State with other
parts of Nigeria including Kano, Bauchi and the federal capital territory, at
least 9 articulated vehicles conveying cows, sheep and assorted foodstuff to
other parts of the country were intercepted and set ablaze by the rampaging
insurgents.
Three commuter buses, 8 assorted salon cars, two commercial
Volkswagen cars and many motorcycles were also affected.
Survivors said most of the occupants of the vehicles had been
killed by the insurgents who later disappeared without a trace.
The road leading to Maiduguri was later blocked by security operatives
for about 19 hours but was reopened at about 1pm yesterday.
Borno State police chief, Tanko Lawan, confirmed the attack in
Benisheikh but did not give details.
The 7 Division of the Nigerian Army in Maiduguri was silent on the
matter yesterday.
However, a soldier who escaped by the whiskers and was seen at a
bank in Damaturu said some of his colleagues had been killed. He said the
insurgents took them unawares taking away their personal effect.
He was in Damaturu to block his ATM card which was taken away, he
said.
Garba Ngamdu, a senior government adviser on Labour and a native
of Benisheikh said he could only confirm the killing of five people in the
town.
A commercial bus driver Bishara Modu who was seen at the
University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH) said he was nearly killed by
the insurgents while conveying passengers to Maiduguri.
He said, “I saw them (attackers) from a distance in military
uniform. When they ordered me to stop, I did but one of them hit me with the
butt of his rifle and I slumped. I think they thought I was dead.”
By 8:30pm when Modu regained consciousness, he saw “all my
passengers dead and car in ashes.”
Kande Baba and her husband Haliru Ismail who were interviewed in
Benisheik said they counted the dead bodies of over 15 people.
Our correspondents saw many residents of Benisheikh with their
luggage on the highway. Most of them said they have to relocate because their
lives are under serious threat.
On September 7, suspected fighters of the Boko Haram sect killed
14 members of the youth vigilante group, also known as Civilian JTF in
Benisheik.
The Maiduguri-Damaturu road is now a ghost of its former self,
just like Maiduguri-Bama and Maiduguri-Damboa-Biu-Gombe roads.
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