Suspected
members of the violent Islamic sect, Boko Haram, on Tuesday stormed a
roadblock mounted by the Joint Military Task Force in Yobe State and
killed four soldiers and two policemen.
Gonori is about 50 kilometres away from Damaturu, the state capital.
The insurgents, numbering about 20, were
said to have caught their victims unawares while they were relaxing at
about 7pm. The attackers were said to have carried AK47 guns.
A security source who briefed our
correspondents said, “Some people suspected to be Boko Haram members
opened fire at a JTF roadblock and killed six security operatives on
duty.
“Those who died include four soldiers
and two policemen; some other soldiers who sustained gunshot wounds have
been moved to the hospital.
“The suspected Boko Haram members might
have been monitoring the roadblock and opened fire when they noticed
that the soldiers were more relaxed; the attack took place in the
evening.
A top security personnel at the Defence
Headquarters on Wednesday confirmed the incident on the condition of
anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.
The source said members of the Special Forces were still engaged in a gunfight in Yobe over the incident till late on Wednesday.
The Special Forces is an amalgam of
security operatives raised to confront insurgents in the troubled
North-East when the Federal Government declared a state of emergency in
Yobo, Borno and Adamawa states a few months ago.
Security operatives on the trail of
insurgents believed to be in possession of dynamites in Potiskum had
shut down the town for a house-to-house search operation on Tuesday.
There was also the fear in security
circles that the insurgents could use the explosives hijacked last week
from Rick Rock Quarry, operated by a Pakistani in the Gulani Local
Government Area of the state, to wreak havoc during the Eid-el-Fitr
celebrations.
Spokesman for the JTF, Captain Eli
Lazarus, reportedly said that the JTF decided to impose a 24-hour curfew
on Potiskum in response to an intelligence report that the insurgents
were planning attacks in the city with effect from Monday.
A source who confided in our
correspondents on Wednesday said that the JTF had temporarily shut down
the MTN communication in Yobe State in order to confront the development
though the communication facilities had since been restored in the
evening of Tuesday.
Efforts to get the Director of Defence
Information, Brig. Chris Olukolade, to comment on the Yobe attack did
not succeed as repeated calls to his mobile phone were not answered.
Meanwhile, President Goodluck Jonathan
on Wednesday admitted that members of Boko Haram took his government by
surprise with their terror tactics.
Jonathan who spoke at the breaking of
Ramadan fast with Muslim members of the Diplomatic Corps in the
Presidential Villa, Abuja, regretted that the attacks being unleashed
on Nigerians by the sect members had led to the killing of children,
security agents and many other innocent persons.
He said, “In Nigeria, the security
challenge we face is all too well-known. The activities of the Boko
Haram sect, especially their tactics of terror, took us all by surprise.
“The mindless attacks of this group have
led to the loss of innocent lives of children, law enforcement agents
and other innocent citizens.
“However, it is significant to note that
with commitment and fervent prayers to God by all who profess their
faith in the supreme creator, we have achieved significant success in
containing the menace of the sect.”
The President expressed the hope that
the Ramadan season had imbued the peoples of the world with compassion
and forgiveness to enable them to surmount the challenges of global
conflicts and wars.
He urged the Muslim diplomats to always
pray for Allah to intervene and help address the various challenges
confronting all nations, especially nations facing civil strife,
political instability and financial crisis.
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