Calm is
beginning to return to Mubi, the second largest city in Adamawa State,
after nearly two days of violence that consumed 10 lives, following a
shootout between soldiers and unknown gangsters suspected to be members
of the deadly Boko-Haram Islamist sect.
The soldiers had
reportedly tracked some of the gunmen from Maiduguri, the sect’s base,
to a large compound in Mubi, where they had been holing up. In the
ensuing shootout, six members of the group were killed while and another
one was arrested.
By the following day, the gunmen had regrouped
for a retaliatory attack on a joint patrol van, putting down a police
inspector, a soldier and four others in the process. Reports indicated
that the military patrol team was ambushed by their assailants along
Ahmadu Bello Way in Mubi, after which there were multiple explosions and
sporadic gun firings from about 7:30pm till the entire night.
Some
eyewitnesses said that the gunmen rode in a car while others said they
were on motorcycles. Bala Muhammad, one eye witness, told THEWILL that
gunmen in a black car detonated an explosive device and opened fire on
the moving military patrol vehicle. He disclosed that the soldiers
responded to the fire in self-defence but were unlucky to lose a man
while four others were wounded.
“The gunmen fled the area,
leaving a soldier dead and four others wounded. One police officer and
other persons were also killed in the attack,” he narrated. “We could
not ascertain the identities of the four persons; we do not know if they
are pedestrians or gunmen.”
Mr. Adenrele Shinaba, the Adamawa
State Police Commissioner, refused to comment on the development,
directing all enquiries to the Public Relations Officer, Ms. Altine
Daniel, who in turn said the Command needed some hours to make its
official statement.
Mubi had witnessed massive violence only on
Monday and Tuesday, the youths protesting on major streets following the
non-removal of corpses of slain suspected Boko Haram members who had
engaged soldiers in a shootout.
Mubi, one of the biggest cattle
trading centres in West Africa, hosts the Adamawa State University, the a
federal polytechnic and a college of health technology, consequently
boasting a combined student population of over 10,000.
SOURCE: THE WILL
No comments:
Post a Comment