Members of the outlawed Boko Haram sect struck at the weekend in eight villages in Adamawa and Borno States, killing over 158 people.
The attacks, which happened on Saturday night, have forced about 100,000 residents of the villages to flee over fears that the insurgents could come again to kill more people.
However, the federal government in a bid to stem the tide of the attacks, has sent more troops to the terror-stricken villages.
It was gathered that the insurgents killed over 65 people in the attacks on seven villages in Adamawa State, while about 93 others were killed when the terrorists struck at a village in Borno State.
An eyewitness who identified himself as Adamu Bulama told reporters in a telephone interview in Yola yesterday that he saw 40 corpses with gun wounds apart from those who were killed in their houses that he could not specify their number.
He gave the names of villages attacked as Kirchang, Kwambula, Shuwa, Yinagu, Bitiku, Yazza and Dagu, stressing that the gunmen finished their operations comfortably and left without been harassed.
He said the gunmen went about the killings without fear of being repelled by anybody.
Another source from Yazza village said he saw corpses of about 25 persons, adding that he and others narrowly escaped the gunmen when they attacked their village.
Chairman of Madgali Local Government Area, Maina Ularamu, who spoke in a telephone interview, confirmed the attacks.
He said: “I am in Abuja but I have received a report that more than 10,000 people have trooped into Gulak town and many of them are stranded on the streets because the houses that accommodated them were occupied and there was no more space. I have just given an instruction that a primary school be opened for them.”
He however said he could not give the exact death toll from the attacks because he was in Abuja on an official assignment.
His Adviser on Security Matters, Walkari Umaru, said thousands of people from Izzghe and others villagers were in Gulak, expressing fear that their number could outstretch resources.
Umaru called on the state government to respect the court decision which brought Ularamu as the chairman of Madgali Local Government Area and allow him access to the monthly subvention which he had been denied for four months to enable him assist refugees and victims of insurgency in the area.
He also appealed to the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Alex Badeh, to ensure the deployment of adequate military equipment to the area with a view to tackling the security problem in the North-east.
The outlawed group also attacked another village, Izge, in Gwoza Local Government Area of Borno State on Saturday evening, and killed over 90 persons.
The sect has been on the rampage in the last couple of weeks roving round villages in the state, killing persons without caution. Only last Tuesday, the insurgents killed over 60 people in Konduga.
Sources told journalists yesterday in Maiduguri that the hoodlums laid siege on the hilly village, killing at will and inflicting severe injuries on the residents.
The source said at present, many of the villagers were missing while those who survived the attack had started moving out of the village.
A resident of the area, Mallam Ali Bulama, also told journalists in Maiduguri that the gunmen, who were dressed in military camouflage, invaded the town at about midnight on Saturday. They killed 93 people, and inflicted injuries on many others.
He said: “As I speak to you, many residents of Izge are missing and those lucky enough to be alive have started leaving.”
Bulama explained that the terrorists, who were about 100, came with sophisticated weapons and started shooting sporadically, setting many houses and shops ablaze.
