Vigilante group kills 17 Boko Haram members in Borno

Seventeen members of the terrorist group, Boko Haram, were killed on Wednesday evening by a youth vigilance group in Lahou village, Borno State.

Boko Haram killed in Bama

Speaking to one of our correspondents from the attacked village, near Ngulde in Askira-Uba Local Government Area, about 70 kilometres to Biu, the biggest town in the southern part of Borno State, the leader of the youth vigilance group in the area, Apagu Bitrus, said the terrorists attacked Lahou at about 4pm on Wednesday but met their Waterloo “as our men were able to overpower them.”

Bitrus bursting with enthusiasm said, “We slew 17 militants on Wednesday evening.”

He revealed that the attackers were all teenagers between the age of 12 and 17 years.

Bitrus said, “I can confidently tell you that when we took the battle to them, some of them fled but we are going to bury those who were killed this morning (Thursday).”

He however lamented that one of the members of the youth vigilance group who happened to be a former councillor in the ward was killed by the terrorists in the attack.

Meanwhile, for the second time in two months, the Plateau State Government has imposed a curfew on Baraki Ladi and Riyom Local Government areas where no fewer than 15 people had been killed in clandestine attacks in the last seven days in the continued orgy of communal violence that pitted the Berom people against the Hausa/Fulani herdsmen in the two areas. The first curfew was imposed on June 24, barely one month into the life of the present administration.

President of Berom Youths Movement, Mr. Choji Chuwang, told one of our correspondents on Thursday that Berom had been turned to a killing field by armed herdsmen, “who daily waylay and kill people in their farms and along the road.”

He said that in all these incidents, there appeared not to have been any proactive measures by security agencies and government officials to nip the killings in the bud.

Chuwang said that the impression being given was that the Berom were the aggressors, adding that what was happening in Berom was not aggression, but terrorism.

He added that even on Thursday, four people were killed in Gashish district of Barakin Ladi and more than 15 houses destroyed in Kwi in Riyom in the last two days.

Chuwang alleged that some security agents could not be absolved from blame as they had often looked the other way while vulnerable people, especially old men, women and children were being mowed down.

However, announcing the imposition of the curfew on Thursday, Secretary to the State Government, Mr. Rufus Bature, said that the action had become necessary because the attacks had continued unabated.

Vigilante group kills 17 Boko Haram members in Borno