Not fewer than 300 people were killed when members of Boko Haram with sophisticated guns and amoured vehicles invaded Gamborou Ngala town in Borno state on Monday, May 5, 2014.
Gamborou, which is cited along Nigeria-Cameroon border is the administrative headquatres of Ngala local government of the state, about 200km from Maiduguri, the capital city.
According to sources, the security forces who had deployed to the area earlier, moved to the Lake Chad axis when they received vital information that some gunmen were seen with abducted schoolgirls around the area.
The gunmen targeted a local market and fired random shots into the crowd before moving into the town to cause more havoc.
Senator Ahmed Zannah confirmed the killings and disclosed that the gunmen spent 12 hours wrecking havoc on defenseless civilians while almost all the shops and houses in the area were burnt to the ground by the insurgents.
Senator Zannah, disclosed in a BBC Hausa report in Maiduguri Tuesday, May 6, 2014 revealed that many people were injured, while surviving victimslost their homes in the attack.
“The attackers stormed the communities in the night when residents were still sleeping, setting ablaze houses, shops and residents who tried to escaped from
the fire, were shot.”
Initially there were many security operatives in the town to secure the residents from possible attacks.
However upon receiving information over the movements of insurgents with kidnapped Chibok schoolgirls towards Lake Chad area,they withdraw and moved further to confront the gunmen.
It was just an hour after their withdrawal that the terrorists invaded the town, shooting everyone at sight and setting buildings on fire. So far 200 vehicles and thousands of houses, shops and an outfit of the Nigerian Customs Service, (NCS) were all burnt”, he explained.
“It is really a terrible situation, we had wanted to rush relief materials to the area to provide temporary succor to the victims. But we were prevailed upon by security agents to shelve our plans on security reasons.”
The attackers were armed with dangerous weapons comprising of Armored Personnel Carries , (APC), Improvised Explosive Devices, (IEDs), petrol bombs, assault rifles and Rocket Propelled Launchers (RPGs).
Senator Shehu appealed to the state and Federal Government to assist the area with resources towards rehabilitating the victims.
