Sunday, 20 November 2011 00:00
From Njadvara Musa (Maiduguri) and Ralph Omololu Agbana (Lokoja)

• Bombs Rock Bank, Police Command

AT LEAST, five people, including a child and two soldiers, have been killed in separate shootings and bomb blasts suspected to have been orchestrated by the dreaded Boko Haram sect in Borno and Kogi states.

As residents of Gwange Ward of the Maiduguri metropolis were yet to come to terms with Friday’s attack on a Joint Task Force (JTF) patrol vehicle that killed a nine-year-old child and two soldiers, bomb blasts hit a bank and area command police headquarters in Kabba, Western District of Kogi State, yesterday leaving two police officers, an inspector and a lance corporal, dead.

The hoodlums opened attack at the police station before proceeding to the local branch of a first generation bank situated within 200 metres to their initial target. Bombers, whose identity was yet to be ascertained, targeted the bank.

Initially, they were thought to be members of the Boko Haram sect but a failed attempt to gain access to the bank’s vault pointed to armed robbery.

According to an eyewitness, two sets of the hoodlums, about 10 in number, attacked the two targets. On getting to the police station, one of the teams reportedly disarmed the police on guard and headed for the armoury where they carted away guns and ammunitions and in the process set free detainees in the station before detonating a bomb.

Having successfully subdued the police, a second team, it was gathered, simultaneously threw a dynamite to gain entrance into the banking hall shooting sporadically in the air. “They threw several dynamites into the bank premises but they could not gain access into the vault before they left in annoyance”, said the witness.

Speaking with journalists, the state Police Commissioner, John Abasankanga, who paid on-the-spot assessment to the station, said immediately he was alerted of the incident he mobilized his anti riot men stationed in Okene to go with the APC tank to the scene.

On entry to Kabba, the police detachment met the bandits who opened fire on the rescue team and deflated the tyres of the APC tank. The policemen swiftly responded to the exchange of gunfire with the bandits before they managed to escape. Abakasanga said he had put his men on red alert and expressed hope that the bandit would soon be arrested.

Reacting to the ugly incident, governor Ibrahim Idris described the incident as unacceptable, saying it was barbaric for anybody to shed innocent blood.

The governor, who spoke through his Director- General, Press Affairs, Mr. Richard Elesho, immediately directed the State Security Service to swing into action and unravel the identity of the bombers.

On the other hand, the Bama-Road shooting in Maiduguri occurred while the soldiers were on patrol of the Gwange ward to protect lives and property.

A sugarcane seller in the area said the incident occurred at 7.30pm on Friday when unknown gunmen, numbering about four, attacked a JTF vehicle.

“We saw two of the soldiers shot, while stray bullets pierced the vehicle of a resident and killed a child sitting beside his father, before the soldiers in their patrol vehicles arrived and started raiding part of Gwange ward for the fleeing armed sect members.”

Confirming the killings yesterday in Maiduguri, the Borno State Police Commissioner, Simeon Midenda, said the JTF and the police commander of Gwange ward, were yet to brief him on “Friday night’s attacks and killings by suspected members of the Muslim sect, as I have just returned from Abuja for a security conference.

http://www.guardiannewsngr.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=68124:2-soldiers-3-others-killed-in-fresh-boko-haram-attacks&catid=1:national&Itemid=559

They should cool down.

I do not think their demands are realistic.

stray bullets pierced the vehicle of a resident and killed a child sitting beside his father,

Terrorists have no respect for life. In reality, terrorists have no religion, no nationality and no philosophy, for they are blind to reason.

How long will this continue? Oh Lord, we are at your mercy.

Some peeps said govt should negotiate.

But IMHO, their demands are just not realistic (asking for an islamic state and totally sharia in all core-north and middle-belt states).

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hmmmm