4 Soldiers,2 Police men killed in Boko Haram Ambush

Suspected members of the violent Islamic
sect, Boko Haram, on Tuesday stormed a
roadblock mounted by the Joint Military
Task Force in Yobe State and killed four
soldiers and two policemen.
Gonori is about 50 kilometres away from
Damaturu, the state capital.
The insurgents, numbering about 20, were
said to have caught their victims unawares
while they were relaxing at about 7pm.
The attackers were said to have carried
AK47 guns.

A security source who briefed our
correspondents said, "Some people
suspected to be Boko Haram members
opened fire at a JTF roadblock and killed six
security operatives on duty.
"Those who died include four soldiers and
two policemen; some other soldiers who
sustained gunshot wounds have been
moved to the hospital.
"The suspected Boko Haram members
might have been monitoring the roadblock
and opened fire when they noticed that
the soldiers were more relaxed; the attack
took place in the evening.

A top security personnel at the Defence
Headquarters on Wednesday confirmed
the incident on the condition of anonymity
because he was not authorised to speak to
the media.

The source said members of the Special
Forces were still engaged in a gunfight in
Yobe over the incident till late on
Wednesday.

The Special Forces is an amalgam of
security operatives raised to confront
insurgents in the troubled North-East when
the Federal Government declared a state of
emergency in Yobo, Borno and Adamawa
states a few months ago.
Security operatives on the trail of
insurgents believed to be in possession of
dynamites in Potiskum had shut down the
town for a house-to-house search
operation on Tuesday.

There was also the fear in security circles
that the insurgents could use the
explosives hijacked last week from Rick
Rock Quarry, operated by a Pakistani in the
Gulani Local Government Area of the state,
to wreak havoc during the Eid-el-Fitr
celebrations.

Spokesman for the JTF, Captain Eli Lazarus,
reportedly said that the JTF decided to
impose a 24-hour curfew on Potiskum in
response to an intelligence report that the
insurgents were planning attacks in the
city with effect from Monday.

A source who confided in our
correspondents on Wednesday said that
the JTF had temporarily shut down the MTN
communication in Yobe State in order to
confront the development though the
communication facilities had since been
restored in the evening of Tuesday.
Efforts to get the Director of Defence
Information, Brig. Chris Olukolade, to
comment on the Yobe attack did not
succeed as repeated calls to his mobile
phone were not answered.

Meanwhile, President Goodluck Jonathan
on Wednesday admitted that members of
Boko Haram took his government by
surprise with their terror tactics.

Jonathan who spoke at the breaking of
Ramadan fast with Muslim members of the
Diplomatic Corps in the Presidential Villa,
Abuja, regretted that the attacks being
unleashed on Nigerians by the sect
members had led to the killing of children,
security agents and many other innocent
persons.

He said, "In Nigeria, the security challenge
we face is all too well-known. The activities
of the Boko Haram sect, especially their
tactics of terror, took us all by surprise.

"The mindless attacks of this group have
led to the loss of innocent lives of children,
law enforcement agents and other
innocent citizens.

"However, it is significant to note that with
commitment and fervent prayers to God
by all who profess their faith in the
supreme creator, we have achieved
significant success in containing the
menace of the sect."

The President expressed the hope that the
Ramadan season had imbued the peoples
of the world with compassion and
forgiveness to enable them to surmount
the challenges of global conflicts and wars.

He urged the Muslim diplomats to always
pray for Allah to intervene and help
address the various challenges confronting
all nations, especially nations facing civil
strife, political instability and financial
crisis.

Share on Google Plus

About mine4u