Director, Defence Information, Maj. Gen. Chris Olukolade
Sixteen persons were killed during an attempt by Boko Haram insurgents to invade Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, on Friday night.
Seventeen persons were injured in the attack that left many houses destroyed. The attack occurred a few hours after the inauguration of President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja on Friday.
An online source also reported that a bomb exploded Saturday afternoon near Maiduguri’s main market, after the city was attacked before dawn by the insurgents using rocket-propelled grenades that killed at least 13 people. The explosion, it was gathered, occurred by the mosque near a market in the town.
One of our correspondents learnt that one of the insurgents joined the worshippers pretending to be one of them. The insurgent later detonated the bomb which killed some of the worshippers and injured many others.
In a swift reaction, Buhari, on Saturday condemned the latest attacks on the town.
In a statement issued by the head of his media team, Garba Shehu, the President warned that his administration would not tolerate wanton and willful destruction of lives by criminal elements bent on anarchy.
He stated that his administration meant business in its determination to tackle terrorism with all the resources available to his government.
Describing terrorists as cowardly murderers that target innocent people, Buhari declared that as the Commander-in-Chief, he had sworn to protect the security of Nigerians everywhere.
The President while calling for increased vigilance by local communities, assured that his administration would give security close attention, pledging that his government was committed to boosting the morale of the armed forces by effectively funding them and attending to their welfare.
He condoled with the families of the victims of the latest terrorist attacks on the town and assured them that the worst days of the criminal elements would soon be over.
SUNDAY PUNCH gathered that the residents of the town were woken from their sleep as sounds of heavy gunshots and explosions rocked the town.
A member of the youth vigilance group, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to our correspondent on the phone, said that the insurgents tried to invade the town at about 12:50am on Saturday from Ajilari Cross and Bintu Sugar axis of the town.
He said the military were able to discover them on time and repelled them before they could further approach the town.
According to him, the engagement lasted for about two hours between 12:50am and 2:50am.
He added, “The insurgents were successfully repelled after heavy gunshots and explosions. They fled back into the dark towards the direction they came.”
He, however, said he could not ascertain the number of the casualties.
A resident of Gomari in the town which is in the same neighbourhood with Bintu Sugar, Abdul Idi, said five residents of the area were killed in the attack.
Idi said a stray bullet killed a man who slept outside in the open to get fresh air.
He also stated that four people were killed in a house affected by the explosion in the area.
According to Idi, eight other people died of stray bullets and explosives in some areas in the town.
Meanwhile, a security source who spoke with one of our correspondents on the condition of anonymity on Saturday, said the insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades and detonated bombs in the town.
The source said that the fighter pilots of the Nigerian Air Force were deployed to bomb the insurgents and were able to dismantle them for ground troops to take over the area.
It was further gathered that several of the residents of the Airport Road axis of Maiduguri fled their communities in fear for safer places in the metropolis.
The source stated further that the troops were in control of the area and were intensifying a cordon and search operation designed to fish out and arrest the fleeing insurgents.
The source said, ‘‘Fighter jets were deployed to scatter them for ground troops to move in to take control of the area. As for casualty, I cannot give you any figure because the insurgents fired at buildings and killed some people; the military also got some of them.”
All efforts to get across to the Director, Defence Information, Maj. Gen. Chris Olukolade, to comment on the development were futile as calls to his mobile phone did not connect.
Also, Olukolade had not responded to a text message sent to his phone as of the time of filing this report.
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