Boko Haram sacks Adamawa governor’s hometown

Members of Boko Haram have sacked the hometown of Adamawa State Governor, Murtala Nyako, Mayo Belwa, damaging a prison, police station and a bank.

The state police command confirmed the Thursday night attacks but made no statement on the casualty figure.

This is coming a week after a clash between the Joint Task Force in the North and Boko Haram militants left 187 people dead.

Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Ibrahim Mohammed, confirmed the incident. He, however, could not provide details.

Since the April 19 clash between the JTF and Boko Haram in Baga, Borno State, at least nine policemen have been killed in separate attacks in Borno and Yobe states.

The Commissioner of Police in Yobe State, Sanusi Rufai, said five policemen were killed during an alleged attack by Boko Haram terrorists in Gashua on Thursday, while four other policemen were killed in Bama, a border town in Borno State, the same day.

As at press time, only scanty details of the Adamawa attacks had emerged.

Despite the amnesty plans for Boko Haram, for whichthe Federal Government has established a controversial committee, attacks in northern Nigeria continue.

The JTF in Yobe had on Thursday introduced an extended curfew in Gashua.

The spokesperson for the task force, Lt. Eli Lazarus, said at the time that the curfew would be between 6 am and 1 pm.

Lazarus said the curfew was to enable the JTF to continue with its ongoing cordon-and-search operation following the attack in which the policemen were killed.

The Northern State Governors Forum on Friday described the death of the policemen as a great national loss, referring to them as heroes who died in the course of service to their fatherland.

The governors expressed serious concern at the recent attacks, appealing to the Boko Haram sect to give peace a chance.

Chairman of the forum and Governor of Niger State, Babangida Aliyu, said in a statement signed by his spokesperson, Danladi Ndayebo, “The renewed violence in Borno and Yobe states  negates all efforts to restore peace to this region.”