Police Headquarter
By Michael Olugbode
Gunmen suspected to be members of Boko Haram sect attacked Chibok, a town in Borno State, burning down the town’s Police Station and a primary school.
Also set ablaze were telecom mast of a Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) firm in the town.
According to residents of the town, who spoke on phone the attack started at 6.35 p.m. on Tuesday.
In another attack by the group, an associate of the former governor of the state and the present chairman of All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP)s Board of Trustees (BOT), Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, Alhaji Mustapha Flawama, aged 62, was shot dead at his Polo ward residence at about 10 a.m. Wednesday.
Speaking on the siege on Chibok, an eyewitness from the town, said the gunmen, who came in two unmarked Golf Volkswagen vehicles armed with petrol-bombs and Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) immediately set out to attack the police station and a primary school.
He said policemen on duty at the Police station, who were apparently caught unaware were dislodged by the group.
According to him, the police had to flee when the gunmen started chanting Allahu Akbau and started throwing petrol-bombs and explosives incessantly at the police station, which eventually went up in flames.
“On torching the police station, the gunmen also ran to one of the Bible schools and a primary school in the town and set them ablaze, including a telecom mast of a GSM firm in the town,” said the resident in a telephone chat from Chibok.
On whether there were casualties, he said: “None of the residents and policemen was killed in the torching of station and schools, but the policemen on duty at the station however, fled on sighting the gunmen with petrol-bombs and explosives at about 6.35 p.m. on Tuesday.”
He, however, said the youths of the town had to summon courage and chase off the fundamentalists.
According to him, the youths quickly mobilised with bows and arrows, and chased the suspects out of the town, while the three public buildings and GSM masts were burning, as the council has no fire fighting vehicles to put off the raging fire.
However, Flawama was killed at about 10.30 a.m. Wednesday.
The two gunmen, according to an eye witness, Ibrahim Audu, had allegedly trailed Flawama in a tricycle to his residence and fired several gun shots into his head and chest, before he slumped dead, right in the presence of his wife and children.
“This area is no longer safe day and night, because I am shocked and frightened of the number of people being killed in their houses and mosques here in Polo area. This elder was sitting in front of his house when these gunmen came on Keke Napep and shot him dead this morning (Wednesday),” Audu said, while describing the state of security in the Polo area, despite the Joint Task Force (JTF) patrol of the area against the activities of gunmen and terrorists.
Confirming the separate incidents yesterday in Maiduguri, the spokesman of the JTF, Lt. Col. Sagir Musa, who said a student was also killed during the attack on Chibok, added that had it not been for the task force, who swung into action immediately, the casualties would have been higher and destruction of property more.