Boko Haram Kills Four, Abducts Teenage Girls in Borno

At least four persons were killed and an unspecified number of teenage girls were on Sunday abducted by Boko Haram insurgents from Bam village in Biu Local Government Area, about seven kilometres from Buratai village, hometown of the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt. Gen. Tukur Yusuf Buratai, in Borno State.

Boko Haram has abducted hundreds of women and girls since the insurgency started in 2009 including over 200 girls last year from their secondary school in Chibok, which attracted global attention and outrage. Since their abduction 20 months ago, the 219 Chiboks girls have still not been found.

A resident of the area, Abubakar Ali, who fled to Miringa town for safety after the attack on Bam, told THISDAY on the phone yesterday evening that the insurgents invaded his village at about 3.30 am and set ablaze the whole village.

He said that they killed four persons and later left with some teenage girls but did not give a number on the numbers of abducted girls.
He said the insurgents raided the village till about 5 am and had sufficient time to “separate the teenage girls from married women, set the whole village ablaze and left with the girls unchallenged”.

He said it was unfortunate that “the hoodlums always attack our villages unchallenged. I am calling on General Buratai to do something about this, as the soldiers seem to be doing little to checkmate them here”.

“We have been telling the soldiers that the Boko Haram members are in some villages around here but they only go to Mangari, a few kilometres away from Buratai and shoot in the air and come back. It seems the soldiers are afraid to confront them,” he said.

In another incident, Boko Haram terrorists also attacked and burnt down Gajiganna village in Magumeri Local Government Area of Borno State killing three persons including a soldier.

They were also said to have carted away a lot of foodstuff thereafter.
A member of the Civilian JTF from the area, Abba Isa, told THISDAY that the insurgents attacked the town at 8.30pm on Friday.

He said they started shooting sporadically in the air to scare the people and in the process killed one man, a woman and a soldier, and carted away a lot of foodstuff, even as they set ablaze all the shops in the village.

He added: “I believe it was a revenge mission, as we recently arrested over 17 Boko Haram insurgents and handed them over to the military. We even planned to pursue them, as the terrorists are in Kemon and other nearby villages but we decided otherwise as there was no military support.”

Another resident of the area, who did not want his name in print, said: “We have been telling the Civilian JTF and security agencies about most of those coming to buy foodstuff from us in trucks but they had not done anything about it.

“We are calling on the federal government and the military authorities to do something about the pockets of insurgents in the bushes and villages before they regroup and start attacking big towns and villages.”

He was of the view that the attack on Gajiganna could have been avoided or repelled if Nigerian soldiers had acted on the information residents had been giving to them.

When contacted to confirm the attack on Bam and the abduction of the girls, the state police spokesman, Victor Isuku, said he had not received any signal from the District Police Officer (DPO) in charge of Biu.(This Day)