BOKO HARAM: Gunmen Attack Commuters, 9 Dead?

Suspected members of the violent Islamic sect, Boko Haram, on Wednesday took to Borno highway again, killing nine commuters and forcing motorists to make emergency U-turn to escape death.
Some of the motorists who escaped from the scene of the attack on the Maiduguri-Damboa-Biu Road said the bodies of the slain victims littered the road.
One of the witnesses who did not give his name said, “They attacked a passenger bus and Volkswagen Gulf car and killed those inside the vehicles. Our vehicle had to make a forced U-turn and we saw bodies of victims on the road.”
“We counted at least nine bodies,” another person who also said his vehicle was forced to turn back on the road said.
The Borno State highways have become the slaughter field of the Boko Haram insurgents in recent time as scores of motorists and their passengers have been waylaid and killed while on the road.
The Maiduguri-Damboa-Biu Road has recorded more ambush by the insurgents, who daily waylaid and slaughtered motorists.
Just on Monday, two lorries carrying oranges were attacked and the passengers abducted on the road.
Our correspondent learnt that some supporters of the All Progressives Congress, who were said to be on their way back to Biu after a rally in Maiduguri were forced to return to Maiduguri following the attack.
One of them said, “The road today (Wednesday) is not good, we have to turn back because we saw and counted nine dead bodies and there was nobody around there so we were afraid to continue our journey to Biu and make a U-turn”
Efforts to get official confirmation of the Wednesday incident were unsuccessful as the newly restored GSM network in the state had connectivity problem.
Meanwhile, the Catholic Caritas Foundation of Nigeria has expressed concern over the menace of poverty and hunger in the country.
The CCFN also said that the northern region was worst hit by the poverty in the land due to a combination of factors, including the activities of the Boko Haram Islamic sect.
Executive Secretary of the group, Rev. Fr. Evaristus Bassey, stated this in a statement on Wednesday in Abuja.
Quoting the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation statistics, Bassey said, “Nearly 870 million people out of the 7.1 billion in the world suffer from chronic hunger and undernourishment.
“Almost all of these hungry people live in developing countries, representing 15 percent of the population of these countries. Caritas Internationalis and its member-countries are committed to changing this situation by working towards ensuring that everyone has access to adequate and nutritious food.
“Whilst working in many rural areas of Nigeria, the CCFN has discovered that the areas worst hit by poverty and hunger are in Northern Nigeria. This is due to a combination of factors, which include the climatic conditions of the region and the recent security challenges.”
Source: Punch