The Nation Newspaper

Tag: attack

  • Scores  killed in fresh Boko Haram attack on Borno community

    Scores  killed in fresh Boko Haram attack on Borno community

    Maiduguri— Boko Haram gunmen returned to Damboa, Borno State, before dawn yesterday, killing scores of residents and setting    homes ablaze in a  fresh assault on the town.

    They threw  explosives into residential homes and shot dead civilians who tried to surrender.

    Residents  said yesterday  they were ‘piling up corpses.’

    Half the town ,about 85 kilometers from the state capital, Maiduguri,was   up in flames, according to spokesman for the  Nigerian Vigilante Group otherwise called Civilian JTF, Abbas Gava.

    The town’s  main market, the home of the local government chairman and the area’s top cleric were similarly  set ablaze.

    Well-armed  terrorists  extremists attacked as residents as they were  preparing for the  Fajr  dawn prayers and the civilian defence fighters could only resist with clubs and homemade shotguns, he said.

    “They killed many people. Women and children fled into the bush,” said an official with the Damboa  Local Government, who requested anonymity.

    “Those who could not flee surrendered and were killed by the insurgents,” he added.

    ”Most houses in the town have been burnt. Only a few still remain,” said resident Ahmed Buba. “The destruction is massive… This is the worst attack by Boko Haram on Damboa.”

    “We were defenceless because all the security personnel, including soldiers and policemen, have withdrawn,” Buba told AFP.

    He could not say how many people were killed.

    ”We have to go through the rubble to see how many people died.”

    Those who escaped  from  the overnight raid fled to the state capital Maiduguri and sought shelter in the palace of the area’s top cleric, Umar Garbai El-Kanemi, also known as the Shehu of Borno.

    The survivors “lodged a complaint with the Shehu because there are no security forces in Damboa,” the official said.

    Damboa has been besieged for two weeks, since the  July 4 attack by  Boko Haram terrorists on the  new tank battalion base set up on  outskirts of the town.

    The Defence Headquarters said that attack was  repelled  with 50 insurgents killed.

    Six soldiers including a colonel also died in the July 4 attack.

    But locals said the soldiers were driven from the base and that terrorists twice have ambushed military convoys trying to reach it in the past week.

    The militants had cut off access to the town from the south on Monday when they blew up a bridge further south. Damboa is on the main road south from Maiduguri.

  • 27 killed in Boko Haram attack

    No fewer than 27 people were killed when some suspected Boko Haram terrorists attacked Sabon Gari village in Damboa Local Government Area of Borno State.

    Sources said the attack took place at 6pm on Tuesday. Seven others also died in an attempt to bury their dead yesterday morning when the terrorists regrouped and opened fire on residents at the Sabon Gari cemetery.

    Fleeing residents said many people were injured during the attack.

    A relative of one of the deceased, Mallam Iliyasu Ibrahim, said his cousin was among those killed on Tuesday.

    Ibrahim said two of his sisters were missing.

    Police spokesman Gideon Jubrin could not be reached but a top security source said:” More than 20 people were killed on Tuesday and Wednesday twin attacks on Sabon Gari village by suspected terrorists.”

     

  • Suicide attack foiled in Yobe

    The police in Yobe State foiled yesterday an attack on a Police station in Damaturu, police commissioner Sanusi Rufai has said.

    Rufai said the suspect, Abubakar Umar (19), drove a blue Chevrolet van into the sandbags in front of the station with the intention of blowing up the station.

    The police chief said: “In the early hours of yesterday, a suspected suicide bomber, Abubakar Umar, attempted to bomb the A Division Police Station, Damaturu.

    “He was driving a blue rickety Chevrolet pick-up van in a suspicious manner.

    “Vigilant policemen noticed his suspicious movement and fired some warning shots when the suicide bomber ran on the sandbags in front of the police station and he was arrested.

    “After serious interrogation, Umar confessed that he was a Boko Haram member and his mission to Damaturu was to bomb the police station.

    “The vehicle was carrying animal dung, apparently as a decoy to conceal the explosives.

    “We discovered five constructed gas cylinders with explosive improvised devices (EIDs), 20 litres of diesel, 10 litres of petrol, a fire extinguisher, 5 9.5 battery chargers and a wall clock in the car.”

    The Bomb Disposal Unit  condoned off the area and diffused all the bombs.

    The suspect is in the custody of the Joint Task Force (JTF).

    The incident was confirmed by the Defence Headquarters.

    A statement by the Director of Defence Information, Gen. Chris Olukolade, said:  “An attack by a suicide bomber operating in a van laden with IEDs was yesterday foiled in Damaturu, the Yobe State capital.

    “The target of the attack was ‘A’ Division of Police Command situated by the main roundabout in the heart of the town.

    “The culprit was arrested by the police.

    “Six constructed turbine containers loaded with explosives as well as 20 litres of petrol and 11 bags of beans chaff were recovered from the scene.

    “The recovered materials are in the custody of the Joint Task Force Headquarters in Damaturu. The Bomb Disposal Unit has safely detonated the explosive.”

    Security agencies have been placed on red alert, ahead of the World Economic Forum in Abuja.

    A source said: “Apart from strengthening security apparatchik in Abuja for the WEF meeting, all police and security formations are to be on red alert.

    “These agencies are to deploy men in strategic and vulnerable points. We know the insurgents might want to divert attention of delegates by striking in any part of the country, especially in the Northeast.

    “The botched suicide mission in Yobe yesterday might have been part of their plot. This is why we are not limiting security beef up to Abuja, it is a nationwide exercise.”

    “The venue of the summit and adjoining places have been placed on 24-hour surveillance since Friday.

    “The entire area is also being frisked as I am talking to you. We will not take things for granted.”

  • MEND attacks Shell Forcados’ pipeline

    • Claims responsibility for Agip pipeline attack

    Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has said it attacked Shell Forcados Sub-C pipeline located in the Western Delta.

    The militant group in a statement signed by its Spokesman, Gbomo Jomo, said its scuba divers launched the attack at about 3am on Thursday.

    Gbomo in the statement recalled that MEND had on March 1 sabotaged the pipeline.

    Shell had earlier this month closed its Forcados crude oil export terminal because of an undersea pipeline leak.

    The pipeline has the capacity to handle 400,000 barrels of crude a day reportedly more than a fifth of the 2.2 billion barrels produced daily in Nigeria.

    MEND said its fighters were successful in causing further damage to the ongoing repairs on the terminal.

    It said the fighters inflicted “the heaviest toll ever on the oil industry since the commencement of its ‘Hurricane Exodus.”

    MEND further claimed responsibility for the attack on the Agip crude oil and gas pipelines in Ikarama Oil Fields located in Bayelsa State.

    Holes were reportedly drilled on pipelines belonging to the Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) in Ikarama community, Yenagoa.

    The pipelines in Ikarama oil fields were said to be spewing oil from three points into the environment after the attack.

    Ikarama is known as a hotbed for pipeline sabotage in the Niger Delta region with Agip raising the alarm that 90 per cent of the spills that had occurred so far in the area were the handiwork of oil thieves.

    Two of the compromised spots were said to be discharging crude oil while the other point was said to be spewing gas.

    MEND’s statement said: “At about 0300Hrs today Thursday, March 27, 2014, scuba divers from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) revisited the Shell Forcados Sub-C pipeline in the Western Delta which we had sabotaged earlier on Saturday, March 01, 2014.

    “We were successful in causing further damage to the on-going repair works, inflicting the heaviest toll ever on the oil industry since the commencement of ‘Hurricane Exodus’.

    “The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) also takes responsibility for the Thursday, March 20, 2014 attack on the Agip crude oil and gas pipelines in Ikarama Oil Fields located in Bayelsa State.”

  • 45 killed again Boko Haram

    45 killed again Boko Haram

    Insurgents suspected to be members of the Boko Haram sect Tuesday  attacked  Jakana village killing forty five people including little kids.

    The armed men who came with explosives and petrol-bombs in 21 Toyota Hilux vehicles and motorcycles also killed two policemen who were busy trying to repel them from their stations.

    Properties destroyed during Monday’s multiple attacks on the soul of Jakana village include Police posts, a primary school, mosques and several mud huts of the poor villagers who inhabit the sleepy settlement.

    The raid on Jakana which is on the busy Maiduguri-Damaturu road about 40 kilometers from the capital city kept commuters coming by commercial vehicle from Jos, Bauchi Gombe and Potiskum stranded on the Damaturu-Maiduguri road while some of them were  said to have turned back to Damaturu on hearing of the bloodletting spree.

    Reliable sources said the insurgents are believed to have been the same group which attacked Mainok last Saturday where they also slaughtered 39 people before setting nearby Jakana village ablaze yesterday killing women and children in the process.

    An eyewitness and resident of Jakana, Baba Mala Modu in a telephone chat with newsmen Tuesday said that the insurgents stormed the village at 10pm Monday with explosives and petrol-bombs, chanting ‘Allah Uakbar’ God is great in Arabic, shooting sporadically into the air to scare the people before setting their houses ablaze for three hours.

    “The gunmen came in large numbers in their usual Toyota Hilux vehicles and motorcycles shooting, killing and at the same time pouring petrol on our huts and setting fire on it.

    “The women who were captured started crying for help, but no one was there to salvage them from these multiple attacks and killings. Some of us had to flee towards the neighboring villages, farmlands and bushes to hide our families.

    “I am talking to you now from a hiding place in the bush. I cannot get into the village, but the number of bodies pulled out from the torched houses, were about 35 this morning; and more bodies could be retrieved before noon today (Tuesday), because several people were trapped in their huts out of fear even as the insurgents unleashed havoc on them,” he screamed on the phone.

    “Some of the fleeing villagers; trekked to Maiduguri for fear of their lives, while others took refuge in the neighboring villages with absolutely no protection from security agents throughout the cold night.”

    He told reporters that there were no soldiers in the village when the attackers struck, adding that the policemen at the station  were overpowered and killed by the damning weapons of the sect,  while repelling the intruders of the night.

    “The soldiers rushed to the village in the morning in their patrol vehicles, and condoned off the Maiduguri-Damaturu road for two hours, before motorists were allowed to pass the destroyed village in which over 35 people were slain, including 15 women and children between the
    ages of nine and twelve,” said Modu.

    The Maiduguri twin blasts of last Saturday claimed 53 lives, the weekend and Monday’s attacks in Mainok, Jakana villages and  Mafa town also claimed the lives of 120 people, including two policemen.

    More charred corpses were said to have been fished out of the sad event as the combing exercise of the military progresses.

    JTF spokes person Colonel Dole could not be reached as at the time of filing this report

     

  • Clark’s attack on Yoruba lacking in wisdom, says Tinubu

    Clark’s attack on Yoruba lacking in wisdom, says Tinubu

    All Progressives Congress (APC) leader Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has described the recent attack on the Yoruba by Chief Edwin Clark as lacking in wisdom and a “near idiotic vitriolic attack on any perceived opponent of President Goodluck Jonathan”.

    Tinubu said Clark should be rescued before he self-destructs.

    Clark last week said the Yoruba have no leader. He added that since the death of Chief Adekunle Ajasin and Chief Bola Ige, the Yoruba have been without leaders.

    In a statement yesterday from Tinubu’s Media Office (TMO), the opposition leader said Clark should talk less and listen more. He queried his qualification to pass judgement on the Yoruba.

    “Clark should not have insulted the Yoruba and some of their leaders. He is not competent to utter such a statement,” Tinubu said, adding that the Ijaw chief would be better tending to his own house instead of remarking on the quality of a home he knows nothing about.

    The former Lagos State governor said the statement shows Clark is afraid of the giant strides being made by the opposition party.

    “Clark is afraid that the progressive party, the APC, launched by Asiwaju Tinubu and other progressives throughout the nation which possesses the political clout to dislodge his ethnic kin from the Aso Villa. Thus, Clark hates Tinubu and all those who speak against the mis-governance taking place.

    “Clark cares nothing for actual modern democratic governance that will move this nation forward, regardless of ethnic origin. He is obsessed with making sure his ethnic kin remains in the Villa by all means necessary; he cares less if the nation crumbles around him; as long as his ethnic son is on the seat, all is fine for him,” Tinubu said.

    The statement said Tinubu never claimed to be a Yoruba leader, but can lay claim to being a national leader because he seeks the betterment of all Nigerians. “Can Clark make the same claim about himself?” the statement added.

    It also said Tinubu has engineered the rebirth of the opposition in the country by working in tandem with like- minded progressives. “From forging the first political merger in the history of Nigeria, he has remained fixed on providing a platform for progressive governance and policies to lift Nigeria from the clutches of poverty and unjust government. This is not a Yoruba dream; it is a Nigerian dream. Clark’s utterances are part of our present nightmare.”

    Warning that with utterances like this coming from Clark, Tinubu said the nation is on a political, moral and economic slide that must be arrested. “The nation is suffering and if this is not arrested, we shall crash against the hard rock of ill-fate. The crash will not be a pretty one,” Tinubu warned.

  • PHOTO: Aviation minister attacked by gun men

    PHOTO: Aviation minister attacked by gun men

  • Youths attack acting governor

    Youths attack acting governor

    Citing “poor security provision”, among other reasons, hundreds of youths in Zamfara State attacked Acting Governor Sanusi Rikiji.

    Rikiji, Speaker of the House of Assembly, who is standing in for holidaying Governor Abdulaziz Yari, was attacked on Saturday in Birnin-Magajiin, headquarters of Birnin-Magaji Local Government Area of the state.

    Rikiji was in the area to condole with the families of three Fulani youths allegedly killed on Thursday by youths of Tudun-Kuya village in the local government.

    The suspected killers were believed to be members of “the Fulani killer gangs’’ said to be terrorising villages in various parts of the state.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) gathered that the youths used stones and sticks on their visitors and it took the combined efforts of the police escort, the military and State Security Service (SSS), personnel who shot into the air to disperse the mob.

    Zamfara police has started investigation into the attack. Police spokesman Lawal Abdullahi, who described the incident as “unfortunate”, said the police would not fold their arms and allow such unbecoming behaviours by the youths.

    He said that the police had deployed troops of mobile and regular police to maintain the peace in the area.

    He assured that anyone found to be involved in the attack would face “the full wrath of the law”.

  • ‘Why we attacked Nigerian embassy’

    ‘Why we attacked Nigerian embassy’

    Niger-Delta students on scholarship in Peoples Friendship University of Russia have  justified their attack on the Nigerian Embassy in Russia.

    In a statement released by one of the students, Okoriko Maxwell,  he gave an account of the events that led to their action citing the nonchalant attitude towards one of their mates who was in dire need of medical assistance.

    The statement reads: “We were angry because the executives of the students visited the embassy for dialogue, we also put calls through to the Consular  notifying them that two students needed serious medical attention but the embassy refused to take any action or come to their aid even as they await operation.

    “The embassy in a recent meeting represented by the Consular and Deputy Head of Missions promised that we should give them one week to contact the head of education in the Niger Delta Scholarship Office which we did but they have till date refused to give us the feedback. Mr. Raymond Ekpobodo on the 28th of January 2013 gave the embassy the sum of 442,971.62 rubles (more than 13 thousand dollars) belonging to the students as the remains of funds used in paying students tuition fee. This money was received by the consular.

    “According to Mr. Raymond Ekpobodo, he was trusted by the former head of education in the programme, Mr. Patterson Ogon, to help him and pay stipends of students after which the receipt for the payment be given to the embassy  because the man who was supposed to coordinate the students according to the former head of education did not meet the requirements of being awarded a contract, the embassy promised to add some money to the existing one which will be used for payment of students’ stipends, but for more than nine months, the embassy never accounted for this money  even when we told them that we have not paid for medical insurance. We therefore demanded for this money to enable us take two of our students to the hospital which they never provided. Heaven can bear us witness that we have met with the embassy.” 

    “We tabled our problems for four time but they never bring this money to save the lives of these two students who are still unable to attend classes because of their ill-health.

    “We destroyed the furniture in the embassy because, we saw the billboard of the Sokoto state governor very large in the reception hall of the embassy, as civilized students, we see it as betrayal, unpatriotic and uncalled for to hang the portrait of Governor Aliyu Wamako on the wall of the conference hall of the embassy. 

    “The Defence Attache of the Nigerian mission in Russia, Air Commodore OluRotimi  A. Ogunjobi who was the only principal officer pleaded with us the students and did his best by giving us evacuation fee to enable us vacate the premises and transport ourselves home. In that regards, we decided to live the embassy, five students have already left as we were all about to live back to the school. But to our greatest Surprise, a group of police men numbering up to 30 and above drove in through the back door of the embassy, they forcefully arrested us into the police BLACK MARIA VAN, we were then 16 because five persons already left the embassy. That was why every news headline only accounts for 16.” 

    “The police released us after confirmation from the Rector of the university that we the affected students have no records of hooliganism, or any traceable crime record with the university coupled with the efforts and attestation of Patriotic Nigerians for our outstanding records since our arrival in the Russia Federation on the 17th of March 2011. We were released after 19 hours under detention.

    “We appeal to the office to contact the University for Further Investigation about some false allegations which was directed against us. We are proud to state here that we have never exempted ourselves from school and the university is our witness. 

    “We therefore appeal to the president of the federal republic of Nigeria to terminate the appointment of Amb. Assam Ekanem Assam. He is unprofessional and lacks managerial qualities, apart from the fact that he relegated the embassy to the status of a police post.”

  • Canada condemns Yobe terror attack

    Canada has strongly condemned Sunday’s attack at the College of Agriculture, Gujba, Yobe, where more than 40 students were killed.

    This is contained in a statement issued by Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister, John Baird, on Monday.

    The European Union also joined in condemning the dastardly act, while the United States Embassy in Abuja condoled with the families of those who lost their lives in the violent attack.
    Baird said: “We condemned the perpetrators of this abhorrent act targeted innocent students while they were sleeping.
    “On behalf of all Canadians, I extend my deepest sympathies to those injured in the attack and to the families and friends of those who lost their lives.”
    The Canadian foreign minister expressed the hope that the perpetrators of  “this despicable act’’ would be brought to justice and pledged Canada’s support to help Nigeria fight terrorism.
    Meanwhile, a statement from the spokesperson of Catherine Ashton, the EU top diplomat, reiterated EU’s firm rejection “of such unjustifiable violence.’’
    The EU noted that the perpetrators of the attack clearly targeted children and students and contended that those responsible be brought to justice and held responsible for their acts.
    The statement also pledged EU’s support to Nigeria in the fight against terrorism, under the principles of the rule of law, respect and protection of human rights.
    A tweeter message from the U.S Embassy in Abuja said: “ our hearts are with the families of those who lost their lives in Gujba, Yobe.
    “We stand united with all Nigerian in this time of tragedy,’’ the News Agency of Nigeria quoted the embassy as saying in the message.