"Yesterday was a bloody day in Zamfara and Borno states as gangs of gunmen unleashed terror with reckless abandon.
By the time the armed gangs were done with their grisly business, scores of innocent compatriots lay dead.
In Zamfara alone, 52 persons were killed in some communities of Tsafe local government area.
Blueprint gathered that the gunmen invaded the villages of Kizara, Danjibga and Keta in the early hours of yesterday and opened fire on the residents.
The attackers, who reportedly stormed the Tsafe local government area axis through the notorious Birnin-Gwari forest, struck the ill-fated communities around 4am, ransacking houses and shooting sporadically to scare members of the vigilante group operating within the area.
Sources disclosed that Kizara village was mostly affected as 30 persons were said to have been killed there, including the Village Head, Alhaji Bello Ibrahim, who was brutally murdered.
One Sani Sabo told journalists that because of the confusion caused by the dramatic attack, movement within Tsafe was severely restricted to an extent that even police officers and other security operatives dispatched to the affected areas had to pass through alternative routes from Gusau to reach the invaded areas.
According to Sabo, up till 8am the gunmen were still engaged in their deadly operation; the area was therefore declared unsafe for travellers to pass.
When contacted, the Tsafe council chairman, Alhaji Aliyu Abubakar, confirmed the incident.
The deceased were said to have been laid to rest in a mass burial at the instance of the state Commissioner for Water Resources, Alhaji Abdulkadir Tsafe, who represented the state governor.
The state Commissioner of Police, Usman Akila Gwary, was also in the area to ascertain the situation.
In Borno, other gunmen, suspected to be Boko Haram members, yesterday killed at least 13 fishermen who had declared fresh hostilities against some youth in Borno and neighbouring Yobe state.
The gunmen had on Monday, at about 3p.m. attacked one Private Ansarudeen School, Maiduguri, where they opened fire on secondary school students taking NECO Exams, leaving several others seriously injured.
Spokesman of Boko Haram, Abu Zinnira, had in a press statement declared a war against the youth in the two states for “colluding” with security operatives to hunt them down.
Yesterday, another fatal attack was executed at the river bank of Alau, some 20km in the outskirts of Maiduguri city, where fishermen from Gwange and Hausari wards of the city were killed in cold blood.
An eyewitness said most of those killed at the river bank were relatives of the young men in the vigilante that is currently pointing out and arresting Boko Haram members.
“I was lucky to be left out because I am not a resident of Gwange or Hausari where the Civilian-JTF came from”, said the source who didn’t want to be quoted as he feared for his life.
“We were busy fishing at Alau river when suddenly a gang of gunmen appeared from nowhere, rounded us up and asked all those who were residents of Hausari and Gwange to fall on one side.
“After sorting us out, they said, ‘Your children brought this fate upon you; they are busy catching our members and handing them to soldiers to be killed’. They then shot them dead and asked the remaining of us to run for our lives and take the message to the youth vigilante. We ran for our lives.”
Mohammed Musa, a neighbour of one of the slain fishermen, told journalists in Maiduguri that the news of the incident came to them late in the evening.
“We got the news during the Maghrib prayer time (6:30p.m.). Their corpses have been brought in today and we are going now to attend the burial”, he said.
A security official who doesn’t want to be quoted, as he is not allowed to speak with journalists, confirmed the two incidents but said, “Honestly, I cannot give more details on that because since the declaration of state of emergency, we are not allowed to speak here, except at the Defence Headquarters”.
Boko Haram commenced its renewed hostility on civilians on Saturday when they attacked four churches in the rocky town of Gwoza, 150km away from Maiduguri, as well as in Hwa’a, Kunde, Gathahure and Gjigga of Gwoza Hills settlements.
A fleeing resident of Gwoza, Tada Garuta, said a local pastor, Rev. Jacob Kwiza of the Church of Christ in Nigeria (COCIN), was killed by the gunmen, who slit his throat after he defied their orders to denounce his faith or convert to Islam.
Impeccable security sources confirmed to Blueprint that hundreds of Boko Haram militia had fled to the rocky hills of Gwoza after soldiers dislodged them from Sambisa Game Reserve recently.
The defunct Talibans of Nigeria which now metamorphosed into Boko Haram had in 2003 used Gwoza hills as their hideout before they were dislodged by the military.
Abu Zinnira said in his emailed statement that they too will also launch a manhunt for their hunters (youth) who go by the name ‘Civilian JTF’.
According to him, “We have established that youth in Borno and Yobe states are now against our cause. They have connived with security operatives and are actively supporting the government of Nigeria in its war against us. We have also resolved to fight back”.
But the leader of the ‘Civilian JTF’, Abubakar Mallum, had called the bluff of Boko Haram, saying, “The time of war, of terror, or war of attrition and killing of innocent people with impunity is over; we the youth have resolved to take our destiny in our hands and will continue hunting the insurgents until we see their end”.
The resurgence of the Boko Haram hostility has dampened the people’s hope that the military would win the battle against the insurgents. Many, who also looked forward to the reconnection of the cut telecom lines that were grounded for over a month, now had their hopes dashed as the militia’s attacks suggested that the situation hasn’t improved yet.
In a related development, a lone gunman, suspected to be a Boko Haram member, was yesterday apprehended in Bulumkutu area of Maiduguri, at about 6p.m., by the Civilian-JTF.
He was caught carrying an AK47 assault rifle under his garment and was immediately handed over to the JTF"-Blueprint
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