Forty people were killed on Wednesday in a fresh attack by gunmen on a border community in Borno State.
The gunmen were said to have arrived
at Gurmushi, Marte Local Government Area and opened fire on the
residents in their houses and those on their way to the mosque for Subhi, an early morning Muslim prayer.
Sources in Maiduguri told
journalists that the gunmen believed to be Boko Haram insurgents,
also razed down houses in the village before fleeing.
One of the sources said, “I counted over
40 corpses littered on the ground, while the village was razed down
completely, most of us ran into the bush for our safety.”
The source also told the British Broadcasting Corporation on the telephone that 12 persons were injured in the siege.
She said that many other residents of
the village fled to a Cameroon settlement for fear of a repeat attack
by the insurgents.
This claim could not however be verified from the military or police authorities in the state at the time of filing this report.
A military source told journalists that the incident had not been reported to the security and military people in Maiduguri.
However, a United States security
expert, Ambassador Daniel Benjamin, on Wednesday described Boko Haram
as the world’s deadliest terror group.
Benjamin,who delivered a lecture at
the 2nd International Conference for Democracy and Good Governance in
Port Harcourt, Rivers State, said the sect attained the status after
it was observed that it kills a minimum of seven persons in each
attack.
The former Head, Counter-Terrorism
Bureau, US State Department, delivered a lecture on ‘‘The Nigeria
security challenge and its implication for internal, Africa, and
Trans-Atlantic relations.’’
He stated that despite the Boko Haram
status, Nigeria could not be described as a war-torn country like
Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Benjamin said, “By 2012, Boko Haram was
the second most deadly terrorist group in the world after Afghanistan’s
Taliban. Taliban killed more people than Boko Haram then.
“Currently, Boko Haram is the deadliest
terrorist group, killing at least seven persons per attack. Boko Haram
has already become a major menace to countries like Cameroon, Niger and
Chad.”
Also, the founder of the Centre for
Value and Leadership, Prof. Pat Utomi, cautioned that no administration
could accomplish anything without legitimacy.
Utomi, who delivered a lecture titled
‘‘Nigeria’s Democracy: Issues and Challenges,’’ maintained that only
democracy could sustain legitimacy.
In his remark, the Rivers State Governor
and Chairman of Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, pleaded
with Nigerians to vote out the Peoples Democratic Party in 2015.
Explaining that Nigeria was in need of
change, Amaechi said, “Let me ask you this question: Do you like the way
Nigeria is being governed now?
“We have one answer. Vote those people
who have kept us in this condition out. Vote them out; whether they are
from the Niger Delta, or Southern Delta, whatever Delta.”