B’Haram hits military bases in Maiduguri

Scores of  civilians and  security operatives were killed  on Monday morning by  suspected Boko Haram terrorists, who  unleashed mayhem  on  military facilities and areas inhabited by  civilians in Maiduguri, Borno State.

The attacks  by   the insurgents, who rode into the  troubled city in different vehicles, including an armoured personnel carrier, chanting Islamic slogans, were  said to have  lasted  for about six hours before  they were  curtailed.

The Director of Defence Information, Brig.–Gen.  Chris Olukolade,   in an electronic mail on Monday, said  that  24 insurgents were killed in the attacks  which also resulted in the wounding of two    Nigerian Air Force personnel.

Although Olukolade   was silent on  the  civilian casualty, a   resident of the Gomari area, a few kilometres to the Maiduguri International Airport, said  he saw five trucks conveying dead soldiers to  a  hospital in the city  around 6am.

Two   brothers, who had just ended their   early morning  Subhi prayer, were  among the civilians  killed by  the insurgents.

Another  military source    said the city would have been overrun  by the Boko Haram members if not for the deployment of alpha jets from Yola, Adamawa State.

• Jonathan meets NSA, CDS, service chiefs

The Monday incident  made  President Goodluck Jonathan  to  summon  the National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd.);   the Chief of Defence Staff, Admiral Ola Ibrahim, and the service chiefs to an emergency meeting.

Schools in the troubled city were  immediately closed as parents rushed  to them  to take their children home.

It also led to imposition of  a 24-hour curfew  on Maiduguri by the Borno State Government and the temporary  closure of the  airport in the city  by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria. All the roads leading to the town were  shut.

Maiduguri streets  were  deserted  while ambulances and security vans were seen conveying corpses to a teaching hospital from the attacked areas.

 Immediately after news of the attack spread, heavy  security presence  was noticed at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja.

The PUNCH  however   gathered  that Jonathan summoned the NSO, the CDS,  the  Chief of Air Staff, Air Vice-Marshal Alex Badeh ; and the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Azubike Ihejirika, to give  him  detailed information on the  incident  and  how  to restrategise to curtail Boko Haram’s  activities.

No statement was issued after the closed-door meeting that took place just as the Borno State Government imposed a 24-hour curfew on the city.

Badeh under whose territory the attack occurred told State House correspondents  in Abuja that only the CDS could talk on behalf of all the service chiefs.

When approached , Ibrahim simply said, “It (the situation) is being managed” as he briskly walked into his car.

Source