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. READ MORE: http://news.naij.com/42945.html
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