by ‘Jola Sotubo

Reports out of Borno say that 15 people have been abducted by Boko Haram militants after a wave of violence hit the area.

The terrorists are said to have kidnapped five policemen with their armoured personnel carrier (APC) and 10 Chinese workers from Kuseri Village which is at the Cameroon border.

The abducted officers have been identified as Luka Maina, Manya Chaka, Corporals Hassan Dauda, Emmanuel Onoche and Umar Ali but the Chinese victims have not been identified.

Vanguard reports:

Our correspondent gathered that the Banki incident took place on Friday at about 9:50 in the morning when some policemen attached to Banki Division were attacked by terrorists while trying to drop six of them at the junction road who were to proceed to their promotion course examination and interview.

Another source said, “ Five policemen attached to Banki, a border town with Bama and Cameroon Republic, were attacked by Boko Haram. The terrorists opened fire on the APC No: NPF4960c conveying the policemen led by an inspector and five others.

The policemen quickly dropped from the APC and ran into the bush before the terrorists went away with the abandoned APC. As I am talking to you now (yesterday), the whereabouts of the policemen are yet to be known and we suspect the terrorists might have kidnapped or killed them”.

Borno Commissioner of Police, Mr. Tanko Lawan, confirmed the abduction of the five policemen and the seizing of the APC. The 16 persons were feared killed when some gunmen allegedly attacked Ngubdala village near Ngurosoye community in Bama Local Government Area of Borno State.

The killing of the Chinese and abduction of the 10 others, reportedly took place at an encampment used by the Chinese road workers close to Chibok where some school girls were kidnapped April 14.

“The Boko Haram militants were heavily armed, they came in five vehicles”, an official in Waza, a town near the site of the attack, said on condition of anonymity.

He said the camp where the Chinese road workers stayed was usually guarded by soldiers from Cameroon’s elite Rapid Intervention Battalion, but many of the troops were in Yaounde for a military parade.

“Cameroonian soldiers retaliated and the fighting lasted until 3 a.m. (0200 GMT)”, said a local police chief. He said one Chinese worker was killed and 10 others had been missing since the attack and were believed kidnapped by the Boko Haram gunmen.

A source close to the Chinese embassy in the Cameroonian capital, Yaounde, spoke of 10 missing and one wounded but would not confirm or deny whether one had been killed.