22 Killed As Boko Haram Strikes Maidugiri

                            
Members of the Boko Haram sect seem to be re-emerging from their hiding places in renewed attacks on Yobe and Borno States, as the suspected terrorists struck again in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, on Monday killing nine students writing examinations conducted by the National Examination Council (NECO).

In a separate attack by the group, a farming village of Alau Dam was also
overrun where 13 persons comprising fishermen and tea vendors were gunned down. Monday's attacks were the third in a space of five days.

The sect had laid siege on Gwoza hill in Borno State where they killed a clergyman and burnt down four churches on Thursday, while on Sunday the terrorists attacked a school in Damaturu, Yobe State where they killed seven students and two teachers.
It was gathered that five of the students killed on Monday were sitting for the ongoing NECO exam at Ansarudeen Primary/Secondary School, a private school in the Jajeri ward of Maiduguri metropolis.

An eyewitness said the gunmen ambushed the people around the dam and sporadically opened fire on them. The gunmen were said to have continuously shouted at their victims: “You are those exposing our activities to security agencies, today your days are over, as we will kill all of you.”
A few weeks ago, some groups of youths on a volunteer mission arrested several members of the sect in Hausari and Gwange, among other areas of Maiduguri and handed them over to the JTF.

The fundamentalist group said that in addition to their targets: the police, soldiers, all security operatives, politicians and other symbols of authority, the youths of the two states have now been added to the assassination list.

Angered by the lingering crises that had crippled social and economic activities in both states, some youths had organised themselves into vigilante groups, captured scores of insurgents and handed them over to security operative. Some of the youths who promised to fight the Boko Haram insurgents in Maiduguri said they would not be deterred from carrying out their mission and there would be no going back on the course they had started so as to bring sanity back to their beloved states.