Village head, policemen, others slaughtered in Borno state

It was a sad weekend for the people of Burbura village in Pompomari General area of Konduga Local Government of Borno State, as yet to be identified gunmen besieged their community, killing their Village head, Bulama Ibrahim Aisami, Mallam Zakariya Gwoza, a bricklayer, Mallam Mustapha, a serving policeman, and Mallam Kolo, a retired policeman.

It was gathered that the dare-devil killers invaded the area on Saturday at about 2am, went to their various houses and slaughtered their victims. Sadly, when all efforts to cut the village head, Bulama Aisami into pieces failed, they opened gunfire on him in the presence of his family members.


Narrating his version of the incident, a neighbour to the slain serving policeman, Mustapha, who also doubles as an eyewitness maintained that he heard strange voices and the cry of the dying policeman but due to the 6am to 9pm curfew imposed on the city, they couldn’t come out to help or raise alarm. However, they resorted to prayer to salvage the situation.

He also added that, as early as 6am yesterday morning, men of the Joint Task Force, JTF cordoned off the area and they were trapped in their respective houses for about an hour.

The security men recovered the bodies of the four victims and conveyed them to the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital’s mortuary.
Relatively, another eyewitness had revealed that the gunmen who carried out the attack stormed the village without any car, but fully armed with rifles, knives and machetes.

According to him, “when I peeped through my window yesterday at that time of the night, five people with rifles and other dangerous weapons walked to the house of the ward head (Bulama) and chanted, Allahu Akbar (God is great) before I started hearing people wailing and crying for help; two hours to the calls for the dawn prayers in the area.”

Squealing further, another resident asserted that the attack on the village was by Boko Haram gunmen, because their victims are important security agents of the community. The late village head was also an informant on the activities and hideouts of sect members in his Pompomari ward of Maiduguri metropolis.

He also confirmed to have heard several gunshots at the residences of the two policemen killed in the area, “the two policemen were feared shot dead in their houses, while the ward head and a bricklayer were slaughtered in their respective residences”.

Borno State Police Command spokesman, Gideon Jibrin confirmed the multiple attacks and killing. The police boss said apart from the killing of the village head, one civilian and two police officers were feared killed in the attacks by suspected hoodlums at the wee hours of Sunday morning.