Thirty innocent souls, including a bridegroom, family members and friends, were killed yesterday in an attack by suspected Boko Haram terrorists in Michika Local Government Area of Adamawa State. Elsewhere in the troubled North-East of Nigeria, two women were abducted by suspected Boko Haram members along the Maiduguri-Damaturu highway in Borno State.
Eyewitnesses said victims of the Borno incident were returning from a wedding Fatiha in Michika town when they ran into an ambush laid by Boko Haram along Bama – Banki – Firgi highway.
A motorist who claimed to be an eyewitness said: “I travelled on Adamawa – Michika – Bama – Maiduguri road. When we reached a place in the Firgi area, we saw many bodies many of which were riddled with bullets while some were covered in blood having been slaughtered beside the road. My passengers advised we should return to Michika, but I told them God was in control”.
A source in one of the federal owned hospitals in Maiduguri said: “We have received the bodies of over 30 people suspected to have been killed while coming from a wedding Fatiha as most of them wore same wedding uniforms (Anko in Hausa) on Saturday evening, but we are are yet to ascertain who are those behind such a deadly attack.”
In the Borno incident, eyewitnesses, the women were abducted from a commercial vehicle near Beneisheikh in Kaga Local Government Area of Borno State.
The women were said to be travelling from Abuja and were headed to Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, when the insurgents stopped their vehicle after setting up a barricade.
Travellers who returned on a journey, Friday, from Abuja, told journalists in Maiduguri yesterday that a commercial 18-seater bus was stopped by armed men suspected to be Boko Haram sect members at Beneisheikh where they asked the two women to alight from the bus.
One of them said: “They did not collect anything from us, they were speaking in Hausa but we were surprised that only those women were asked to get down. When someone tried to plead on behalf of the women, they asked him to shut up if he still valued his life. Immediately, the women got down they asked us to leave.
“When we left, we met some police officers on patrol and we informed them. They asked us to tell them the exact area, which we did and they headed towards the area while we proceeded to Maiduguri.”
None of the incidents has been confirmed by military or police authorities.
