President Muhammadu Buhari wednesday expressed shock over Tuesday’s deadly terror attack on a village in Borno State, whose death toll has now risen to 81.
The attacked village, Foduma Kolomaiya, which is about 11 kilometres away from Gazaure town of Gubio Local Government Area of the state, is not near any major highway.
Residents of the village told the Borno State Governor, Prof. Babagana Zulum, during a visit to the scene of the attack that the number of those killed had risen from the initial 70 to 81.
Also, in the president’s home state of Katsina, some 66 people were killed when bandits attacked some communities in Faskari Local Government Area.
The Nigerian Army, which regretted the attacks on communities in the two states, has vowed to apprehend and neutralise them.
In a statement yesterday by presidential spokesman, Mallam Garba Shehu, the president said he was appalled by the brutal killings of scores of people by the Boko Haram/Islam in West Africa Province (ISWAP) in Gubio village of Borno State.
He described the attack as one of the most brutal terrorist attacks on innocent people from the North-east.
The statement said the president was awaiting a detailed briefing on the incident from Zulum, based on the outcome of his visit to the affected communities.
“The primordial nature of the killings is particularly shocking because it happened not long after the Ramadhan and Eid, and the country is preparing to celebrate the Democracy Day,” the president said.
He condemned the incident and charged the armed forces to sustain their recent string of successes against the terrorists “to extract a heavy price from the attackers, and bring back all those they kidnapped as well as the large number of cattle rustled.”
The president expressed condolences to the bereaved families, communities, the government and people of Borno State.
Earlier, villagers told Zulum, during his visit to Gubio to sympathise with them and assess the damage, that the casualty figure had risen to 81.
A statement by the governor’s spokesman, Mallam Isa Gusau, quoted the villagers as saying that the insurgents abducted a village head along with six others.
“A survivor told Zulum that 81 residents were killed during the attack on Tuesday with 13 persons injured and seven others, including village head was abducted,” the statement added.
One of the villagers had earlier told reporters on the phone that the insurgents operated for about two hours unchallenged with the initial bodycount put at 70 while 300 cows were also killed in the attack and over 1,000 cows rustled.
