Four killed as soldiers battle Boko Haram in Maiduguri

Four persons including two soldiers were on Friday evening killed during a twice bomb explosions and exchanged of gunfire between members of the notorious Boko Haram sect and the men of the Joint Task Force in Maiduguri.

The bomb blasts which shook the ancient town happened some minutes after 4pm near one of the popular market in town, Gamboru market.
Some residents of the area told journalists that the people of the area had to scamper for safety on hearing the deafening bomb explosions, which made soldiers to barricade off the place and subsequently engaged members of the sect in gun battle.

A resident who spoke on condition of anonymity said there were casualties on both sides and the soldiers had to evacuate both the injured and corpses from the area.
He said “everyone was frightened by the blast and cannot say exactly how it happened because we were busy in our shops.”

He added that they had to flee the area immediately the incident happened as the soldiers immediately moved into the area and exchanged gunfire with the sect members.

He said they later got to see the JTF moving away some bodies in their van and “I personally saw two soldiers lying lifeless including two civilians who were apparently dead,” the source said.

He equally added that several other persons with varying degrees of injury were also conveyed from the area by the soldiers who prevented movement to and from the place of the attack.

An impeccable source at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH) revealed that he saw some soldiers escorting two ambulances to the hospital and saw two soldiers with gunshot injuries.
He could not confirmed however whether those in the ambulances were dead.

In a press released signed by the spokesman of the JTF, Lt. Col. Hassan Mohammed last night, he claimed that four members of the sects were killed.

He disclosed that though some of the men of the JTF had minor injuries but none was killed.
In another development two persons were shot dead yesterday at a mechanic garage near Gidan Dambe within the Maiduguri metropolis.

Eyewitnesses told journalists that some apparent teenagers invaded the garage around 3pm and killed their victims.

One of the eyewitnesses, Malam Bashir Umar said “the two young boys appeared around 3pm and went straight to the shed where their victims were working and they shot them at close range and disappeared without trace.”

When contacted the Borno Police Commissioner, Simeon Midenda could not confirm the report to newsmen, he claimed to be away in Abuja on a meeting when asked.

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