- By Ndahi Marama, with agency reports -
Residents of Maiduguri were forced to return home earlier than the curfew time, yesterday, as soldiers and members of Islamic sect, Boko Haram, engaged in a fierce gun battle that lasted for over an hour.
The sect’s men had ambushed some soldiers deployed to Gwange, a Boko Haram flash-point at 5pm yesterday, leading to the death of one of the soldiers.
The Joint Task Force, JTF, was said to have hurriedly dispatched soldiers in five patrol vehicles and an armoured tank in the area.
The popular Lagos Street was immediately cordoned off. A resident of Gwange area said that soldiers chased the Boko Haram men and started shooting, claiming many people died in the gun battle.
The resident said: “I think Boko Haram killed one of their men and another one was injured. So when they came there, they started shooting, breaking peoples’ houses and blocking all the roads in the area.
“Some people were hit by stray bullets but I can’t tell you the number of casualties because everywhere is dark. I’m just lying down in my house now.”
“Nobody can tell what will come next because these soldiers are angry today. It is not safe to stay outside now,” Idris, another resident said.
In a related development, a bomb was found near a police station in Kaduna State last night, two days after a policeman was blown up by an explosive.
There were also speculations that a bomb had been discovered near a Church in the area.
Although details of the find were sketchy, spokesman of the Police Aminu Lawan, confirmed the discovery. He denied that the bomb was found near a church. He also said the bomb had been detonated.
Lawan said: “a black polythene bag was discovered along old cemetery road in Kabala Doki this evening. The attention of the Police was called. Our anti-bomb squad promptly moved in. We saw the object. Our men then successfully detonated it. No one was hurt.
“The explosive was not found near any Church, as people have started saying. It was near the cemetery. We want people to go about their business and alert the police of any suspicious thing”, he said.
