by Stanley Azuakola

On Thursday at the Suleimanti ward of Maiduguri, Borno State, tragedy struck as gunmen, suspected to be members of the Boko Haram sect, stormed the clinic of the chief medical director (CMD) of Umaru Shehu Ultramodern Hospital, Dr. Samuel Ville.

Ville, who was the reported target of the attack managed to escape by scaling the perimeter fence of the facility. His 26-year old son, Emmanuel Ville, was not that lucky however as he was killed by the gunmen.

According to a patient who witnessed the incident said: “The gunmen burst in and started asking after Dr Ville’s whereabouts. They forced us to lie faces down. They ordered us to surrender all our cell phones and monies or be shot.”

The gunmen took away the laptop of the medical director as they were unable to locate him.

“After collecting our monies and valuables, they dragged the doctor’s son out and shot him dead. Thereafter, men of the Joint Task Force (JTF) rushed here and cordoned off the area, which houses the residence and clinic. That was at about 10pm.”

According to a report by The Guardian, the  sect, last month, planted an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) at the premises.

The spokesman for the police in Borno State, Gideon Jibrin, said: “Armed hoodlums, suspected to be Boko Haram members, attacked the residence and clinic of one Dr. Samuel Ville in Bulunkutu, Maiduguri, last night.”

He said the suspects initially wanted to assassinate the hospital’s CMD, but killed his son, whom they probably thought could identify them.

He explained that during the attack, one of the suspects wore a mask to hide his identity.

Jibrin said no arrests have been made.