Suspected members of Islamist sect, Boko
Haram, on Tuesday, attacked Bama, Borno State, leaving 55 people dead,
the Joint Military Task Force said on Tuesday.
The gunmen, according to Reuters,
killed 22 police officers, 14 prison officials, two soldiers and four
civilians, while 13 of the sect’s members died in the clash with the
task force members.
Spokesman for the JTF, Sagir Musa, confirmed this to Reuters.
The suspected terrorists were said to have freed 105 prison inmates during the attack which reportedly began at around 5am.
The JTF, which took journalists to Bama
to assess the damage caused by the terrorists, added that three children
and one woman, were among those killed during the multiple attacks in
the town.
Sources in the town claimed that about
300 suspected members of Boko Haram stormed the town, first attacking
the 200 Tank Battallion, a military Barracks.
The suspected terrorists were, however,
repelled by soldiers, who killed several insurgents who were forced
to retreat with the corpses of their members.
They were unable to take away 10 of their members’ bodies.
One other member, who was injured, was tied to the stake when the JTF and journalists visited.
Bama’s police station, military barracks and government buildings were razed, an eyewitness in Bama said.
Bama is a small, remote town in northeastern Borno State, where Boko Haram first began its uprising in 2009.
Meanwhile, Senate Joint Committee
investigating the Baga massacre on Tuesday visited Maiduguri, Borno
State capital, en-route the site of the tragedy.
Our correspondent learnt that members of
three standing committees of the Senate namely: Police Affairs,
Defence, National Security and Intelligence, were in the state on a
fact-finding mission.
The state Commissioner for Information, Mr. Inuwa Bwala, confirmed this in a telephone interview.
“Members of the committee are here. They
just arrived Maiduguri. We are going into a meeting that is all I can
tell you for now,” Bwala said.
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