NO fewer than nine people were said to have been killed at separate locations when gunmen opened fire at the Maiduguri Monday Market at about 2.00 p.m on Wednesday, leaving several injured, eyewitnesses told the Nigerian Tribune in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.
Nigerian Tribune also gathered that one Tajudeen, a mechanic on the Lagos Street in the capital, was shot dead on Wednesday afternoon by unknown gunmen.
According to an eyewitness, they were coming from the University of Maiduguri when they saw soldiers asking people to go back, as the Lagos Street was temporarily closed while gunshots were heard, which indicate a trouble on the highway.
“We made a U-turn, followed through Gwange and by the time we were close to the market, we saw people running and asking us to turn back that gunmen had taken over the market.
“We quickly turned and went back, then we get out through the river behind former deputy governor’s house before we could get to G.R.A,” Nur Bakura told Nigerian Tribune.
One of the drivers at the Government House, who preferred anonymity, said he was just coming from the market area, adding that “I had to abandon the vehicle and took to my heels. The gunshot was like no other. I did not see them but it was as if the gunshot was right behind me.
“When I came out of the market, I could not go to where I parked the car again. I ran to a nearby shop where we lock ourselves until we realised that the military had come and taken control of the situation. We were told that eight people were hit by bullets and they died.”
A source at the Specialist Hospital, Maiduguri, told the Nigerian Tribune that they had taken two corpses to the hospital – a male and a female – who were hit by bullets during the killing.
The spokesman of the Joint Task Force (JTF) in the state, Lieutenant-Colonel Shamsu Musa, while confirming the incident, however, told the Nigerian Tribune that on getting to the scene of the incident, there were sporadic shootings by unknown gunmen, which lasted for three minutes, leading to the death of one person.
“Patrol has been intensified and normalcy has since been restored.
Effort is on to arrest the gunmen. But so far, no arrest has been made,” Musa told the Nigerian Tribune.
In another development, the JTF, in Kano, on Tuesday, while engaging a group of terrorists in a cross fire, killed three gunmen who had earlier snatched a Honda car from the owner, just as Major-General Garba Ayodeji Wahab, the General Officer Commanding (GOC) One Division, Nigerian Army, Kaduna, disclosed that the gunmen were planning another devastating attack on Kano this week.
Speaking with pressmen at the 3rd Mechanised Division of the Nigerian Army, Bukavo Kano, Wahab said the army was not out to harass or intimidate innocent people of Kano.
While addressing journalists on the attack by the gunmen on the soldiers, the JTF spokesman, Lieutenant-Colonel Ikedichi Iweha, said after the hoodlums had hijacked the Honda car from the owner at a gun point, the owner decided to alert the JTF men at checkpoint.
Following the information, the men of the JTF, according to him, were at alert, as they returned the fire when the gunmen arrived at the checkpoint.
Lieutenant-Colonel Iweha said as a result of the crossfire between the terrorists and the soldiers, the three hoodlums fell to the superior firepower of the JTF and they were all dead.
