by ‘Jola Sotubo

Three policemen, who accompanied a bullion van belonging to a commercial bank, were also reportedly killed when the insurgents intercepted the van on Thursday. “The policemen were killed when the insurgents intercepted a bank bullion van along same road,” the source, a police officer said.

Residents, who travelled from Maiduguri to Damboa on Friday, claimed the insurgents stopped motorists and opened fire on them. Details of the attack were very sketchy as at press time even as both the state police command as well as the army division could not be reached for confirmation.  Damboa is about 58 kilometres from Maiduguri.

Last Tuesday, the Boko Haram men, dressed in military fatigue, unleashed violence on the commercial town of Benisheik along Maiduguri-Kano/Damaturu highway, killing no fewer than 87 people. But officials of the Borno State Environmental Protection Agency (BOSEPA) on Thursday said they picked about 140 corpses from the town and surrounding bushes.

“We have been picking corpses off the road sides all day, there are more in the bush, they are all travellers shot at or slaughtered by Boko Haram gunmen who attacked on Tuesday night. We have so far picked up 143 corpses.” Abdulazeez Kolomi, an environmental assistant said. Another sanitation officer, Saidu Yakubu, who briefed Gov Kashim Shettima during a sympathy and assessment visit to the town on Thursday, said a total of 87 corpses were picked within Benisheika day after the attack.