At least seven persons were left dead in Bam village of Borno state
when armed Boko Haram terrorists attacked in the early hours of Sunday
and abducted unspecified, but large number of teenage girls, witnesses
said.
Bam village, located in Biu local government area of Borno state is
about 170km south of Maiduguri, the state capital.
Residents of the attacked village said the gunmen crept upon them at
about 3.30am, while they were still fast asleep. Houses were set
ablaze while many, including women and children were injured.
A resident of Bam, Mallam Ali, said he and many other lucky villagers
managed to flee into the neighboring Miringa town from where he spoke
to journalists on phone.
“The terrorists came at about 3.30 in the morning. They asked those
that could not escape to gather in the center of the villager, and
then they separated many of the teenage girls from married women. They
set almost the whole town ablaze before leaving with the girls,” he
said.
“We want the military to do something fast because we have been
telling the soldiers that the Boko Haram are in some of the villages
not far away but the soldiers only went to Mangari village, which is
some few kilometers away from Buratai before they turned back.”
The terrorists had in a separate attack last Friday attacked Gajiganna
village in Magumeri local government area of Borno where they
reportedly killed three persons including a soldier.
An operative of the Civilian-JTF, Jibrin Aliyu, had informed
journalists in Maiduguri that “the attacked took place in Gajkigana at
about 8pm.
“I believe it was a revenge mission, because it was just recently
that we arrested over 17 Boko Haram insurgents and handed them over to
the military. We even told them that we should go after the others
because we had vital information that the terrorists have been camping
in Kemon and other nearby villages,” Jibril said.
When contacted for comments, the state’s Police Public Relations
Officer, Victor Isuku, said he had not gotten any signal from the
District Police Officer (DPO) in charge of Biu local government even
though he promised to get back to our reporter as soon as he confirmed
the development.