by Boko Haram, as yet another 142 bodies were discovered and evacuated
Thursday by officials of the Borno State Environmental Protection
Agency (BOSEPA).
An official of the agency disclosed this yesterday, stating that 142
corpses had been evacuated from the highway and surrounding bushes
after Tuesday's ambush on Maiduguri/Damaturu highway by the terrorist
sect.
The official, who gave his name as Saidu Yakubu, while briefing
reporters who were in Benisheikh town with the Borno State Governor,
Alhaji Kashim Shettima, said 87 corpses were evacuated from the road
and bushes yesterday alone, even as the evacuation was still ongoing.
Three swollen corpses were sighted by journalists on the highway
afternoon during the visit to the area.
Also, Shettima and his team were welcomed to the area by the morbid
site of two compactor waste evacuation trucks, which were fully loaded
with corpses.
Residents informed the governor that 14 civilians and five security
personnel, comprising two soldiers and three policemen, were killed in
Benisheikh town by the outlawed sect.
It was also gathered from residents that 15 trucks, 18 vehicles, eight
motorcycles and six bicycles were set ablaze by the sect members, who
were said to have been about 300 in number.
It was not clear where men of the Nigerian Army, who had taken over
from the Joint Task Force, were at the time of the attack that gave so
much room for the onslaught on innocent travellers on the highway and
town.
The terrorists also set ablaze about 150 houses and shops and made
away with 10 vehicles from Benisheikh town.
The military post in the area and the local government secretariat
were also attacked with rocket-propelled grenades.
Briefing the governor, the Caretaker Chairman of Kaga Local Government
Area, Alhaji Bunu Kaigama, said: "14 persons lost their lives in the
town yesterday (Wednesday) from the attack by Boko Haram members. Many
others were killed along the road to Maiduguri and Damaturu."
Shettima, while speaking to residents after assessing the extent of
the damage inflicted on the town, said: "Please don't leave your town
in spite of the trauma you are undergoing due to the unfortunate
experience.
"Government is going to rebuild all the houses destroyed by the
attackers and as soon as I leave here, I will constitute a five-man
committee which will be given N50 million to come and commence
reconstruction work immediately.
"Everyone who has lost something will be compensated to enable them
have a fresh start. All vehicles burnt or taken away by the insurgents
will equally be replaced."
The governor urged the people not to leave their ancestral homes as
government would do everything within its power to make life worth
living again for them. He promised families of the 14 deceased
N250,000.
The governor described the attack as barbaric and un-Islamic,
insisting that no one in his right senses would do it, adding: "It is
just insanity to destroy public structures, people's houses and kill
people like they did."
At a security post, an army officer, Lt. Col. Babalola, told the
governor that two soldiers and three policemen had lost their lives in
Wednesday's encounter.
An elder of the community, Jibrin Shuwa, 66, also told reporters that
the Boko Haram members "came and took away all our foodstuff, leaving
us with nothing to eat."
The Commissioner of Police Lawal Tanko and Brigade Commander of 21
Armoured Brigade, Brig. Gen. Idris Mohammed Yusuf, who was also with
the entourage told residents that more troops would be deployed in the
area to secure it against future attacks.
Tanko said: "Our office was destroyed but we will still send more of
our men to work closely with the soldiers. We will give them
logistics."
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