…as Buhari vows to crush terrorists
A four-hour rampage by Boko Haram terrorists in Auno, a sleepy community near Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, on Sunday night left no fewer than 30 people, including infants, dead.
The victims consumed by the fire set to their houses and the vehicles inside which they were sleeping by the insurgents who arrived in the village on motorcycles.
Villagers said the victims arrived at the military checkpoint leading into Maiduguri after the 5pm closure of the gate and had no choice but to sleep in Auno, the neighbouring village on the Maiduguri-Damaturu Highway.
The villagers, while narrating their ordeal in the hands of the terrorist group on Sunday night to the Borno State Governor, Prof. Babagana Zulum, said many persons were abducted.
They lamented that 18 vehicles comprising trailers, buses and cars were burnt by the insurgents who laid siege to the village at about 9.50 pm on Sunday.
The villagers, who were still in shock when the governor visited them on Monday morning, said women and children were loaded into three buses and driven away.
The villagers lamented that most of those that were attacked were those that could not get into Maiduguri on Sunday as the gate to the town was shut against them having failed to arrive before the 5pm deadline.
One of the villagers, who spoke to journalists in confidence, said, “It is so sad as the Boko Haram seems to have targeted the people knowing that many would have to sleep in Auno as the gate to Maiduguri would have been shut against them by 5pm.”
The governor, who was visibly shaken when he saw the charred bodies of the victims of the attack, requested the military authorities to dismantle the Auno gate from its present position and move it further away from the village so that it would be more difficult for the insurgents to gain access into the village.
He said the Borno State Government would assist those whose vehicles were destroyed in the attack as well as those whose goods were burnt alongside the vehicles transporting foodstuff and other wares to Maiduguri.
Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari has promised to continually frustrate the goal of terrorists to hold Nigeria to ransom, insisting that their days are numbered.
President Buhari in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, on Monday, condemned the “murderous and cowardly attack on innocent passengers by the Boko Haram terrorists near Maiduguri.”
The statement added that President Buhari is ever determined to frustrate the insurgents and his administration will not be derailed in protecting the lives of Nigerians.
“The commitment of this administration to protect the lives of Nigerians will not be derailed by the cowardly and indiscriminate violence against innocent people by Boko Haram terrorists.”
President Buhari also condoled with the government of the state, stressing that “terrorists are clearly on a back foot and their days are numbered.
“As our armed forces continue to receive more hardware and intelligence to counter our current security challenges, the remnants of Boko Haram will ultimately be crushed.
“The peculiar challenges of asymmetric warfare notwithstanding, our armed forces are ever determined to defeat these enemies of humanity,’’ President Buhari said.
Boko Haram burns people in Bornu.
Lord have mercy. Has this country not wasted enough human and material resources through insuegency? Has the land we stand on not shed and drink enough blood? It is time we Nigerians rise up in one accord and confront General Buhari to immediately sack the service chiefs and replace them with young and vibrant officers hungry for result.
These present chiefs are not only clueless, the certainly are profiting from the regular carnage.
The national assembly and other well meaning Nigerians and groups should please rise and confront this menace as soon as possible; let’s stop relying on Buhari and the service chiefs as it is obvious that they are part of the problem and can never bring any solution.