President Goodluck Jonathan held an
emergency meeting with security chiefs on Friday following yet another
attack by rampaging Boko Haram insurgents in Bama, the headquarters of
Bama Local Government Council.
The Bama attack which occurred on
Thursday night left many victims dead in its wake.
The emergency security meeting was held
to assess the spate and magnitude of insurgents in the areas under emergency
rule in the country.
Jonathan confirmed the meeting with
security chiefs in the morning of Friday while speaking at the decoration
ceremony for newly promoted generals of the Armed Forces.
He said, “I remember when I came in,
I had had a meeting with the service chiefs and the Inspector General of Police
because of what happened in Bama yesterday.”
The President did not give details of
the attack which culminated in the meeting before he attended the decoration
ceremony scheduled for 8 AM.
Investigations however revealed that
the Special Forces killed 30 insurgents at a riverine community in Bama while
they were trying to get water from the river in the morning on Thursday.
The incident was said to have angered
the insurgents who attacked the Bama barracks in very large number on Thursday
night.
It was learnt that the Special Forces
and riot policemen engaged the insurgents in a shoot out killing a large number
of them.
The source stated however that the
insurgents entered the Bama Barracks, killed a soldier and took away his riffle
during the attack.
Investigations also revealed that the
insurgents fired at a military helicopter that was deployed from Maiduguri to
Bama to give support to the land forces involved in the fight against the
insurgents without any casualty on the part of the Special Forces.
It was stated that the aircraft got
back to base successfully.
“What happened was that the
insurgents numbering 30 were killed while they were trying to get water from a
dam in the area. The attack occurred in the morning on Thursday.
“After the attack, they mobilized and
attacked the Bama barracks in the night; they entered the barracks and shot a
soldier to death; they took away his rifle.
However, soldiers and mobile
policemen encountered them fiercely and killed many of them.
They also fired shots at a military
helicopter deployed to the area, but the aircraft was not destroyed. I learnt
that a soldier was killed,” the source said.
When our correspondent contacted the
Director, Army Public Relations, Brig. Ibrahim Attahiru, he said that the
military formation in Borno would issue a statement on the latest attack.
The Director of Defence Information,
Brig. Gen. Chris Olukolade, said in an electronic mail on Friday that the
terrorists who attacked the Bama barracks came through Banki town in the
nation’s border with Cameroun.
Olukolade said that the attackers
used high caliber weapons such as anti-aircraft and rocket propelled guns in
the night attack.
He said that Special Forces
comprising ground troops and Air Force fighter air aircraft repelled the attack
and were in pursuit of the fleeing terrorists.
However, an online news agency, the
Saharareporters quoted a military source as having said that the insurgents
killed some women, children and relatives of the soldiers in the battle.
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