15 killed as gunmen invade Taraba village

                                                      15 killed as gunmen invade Taraba village

The peace of Easter was, at the week­end, shattered when gunmen sus­pected to be members of the dreaded Boko Haram invaded a village in Tara­ba State, killing no fewer than 15 people, while about 20 were injured.

This is coming at a time when a five-year-old girl was burnt to death after gunmen bombed the Gov­ernment Girls’ Secondary School, in Yana, the head­quarters of Shira Local Government Area of Bau­chi State.

In the Taraba tragedy, it was gathered that gun­men in large numbers had invaded Gidin-Doruwa, in Wukari Local Government Area, at 1.30am on Easter morning.

In the attack, a church and private buildings were razed, while some villag­ers were killed. Villagers stated that the attackers had opened fire on any­thing insight.

It was gathered that po­licemen were promptly drafted to the community to confront the invading gunmen. In the exchange of gunfire, other people were also killed.

Police spokesman, an Assistant Superinten­dent of Police (ASP) Jo­seph Kwaji confirmed the attack, revealing that  combined team of mo­bile policemen from the state command, Mopol 34 Squadron, Gombe and 14 Squadron, Adamawa State confronted the invaders.

Meanwhile, the Taraba State government has con­demned the attack. Spe­cial Assistant to the acting governor on Media and Publicity, Aaron Atimas, quoted his boss as say­ing: “Government would do everything possible to protect lives and property of the citizenry,” adding: “The perpetrators of the crisis must be brought to book. Government cannot fold her arms and watch her citizens die in the hands of heartless people.”

In a related develop­ment, gunmen, who struck at about 2.30am, in Bau­chi, also bombed the Shira Local Government Sec­retariat Conference Hall, where 15 vehicles were razed to ashes

The staff quarters and school bus of the GGSS were also burnt to ashes, as the gunmen took away the private vehicle of the school principal

A security source re­vealed that there were 195 girls writing the West Af­rica Examinations Council (WAEC) in the school at the time of the attack.

It is not yet ascertain the number of casualty at the time of this report, but a witness told our reporter on telephone that the situ­ation, especially in the school, was that of pande­monium.

“As I am speaking to you, there is confusion ev­erywhere. There is smoke everywhere,” he said.

The security source however, gave assurance that all the 195 girls in the school were safe, claiming the schoolgirls “don’t even know what happened.”

He said soldiers from Bauchi and Jigawa states ambushed the attackers and recovered some mo­torcycles, IEDs RPGs, and a green Hilux”

Before fleeing, the gun­men also attacked and burnt police quarters, GSM masts belonging to MTN, Glo and Etisalat mobile telecommunica­tions companies in Yana town.

The suspects further at­tacked a branch of First Bank and destroyed the vault.

Apart from the five-year-old girl, who was burnt to death, no other ca­sualty was recorded as all the students were reported to be safe.

The Police Public Rela­tions Officer of the Bauchi State Police Command, DSP Haruna Mohammed, confirmed the attack in Yana, saying combine se­curity forces were on the trail of the attackers.