Boko Haram Distribute Leaflets, Urge Residents Of Gombe To Boycott Next Months Elections

Boko Haram invaded the restive northeastern Nigerian city of Gombe on Saturday and warned residents against voting in next month’s elections as the Islamists defied regional force aiming to pursue them.

The Boko Haram fighters called on residents to boycott elections which had originally been planned to take place on Saturday before they were postponed until March 28.

“Whoever professes Islam should distance himself from polling stations because we are going to attack polling booths,” read the Boko Haram leaflets.

Residents said the gunmen in military uniforms who invaded the city in around 30 vans and on several motorcycles later withdrew from the city unchallenged.

“They moved out of the city on their own free will and are now in Dakin-Kowa town,” resident Bello Jatau said, referring to an area around 40 kilometres away.

He said fleeing residents of Dadin-Kowa were taking refuge on hilltops from where they could see Boko Haram gunmen burning their homes.

Soldiers were said to be patrolling the streets of Gombe and firing indiscriminately following the withdrawal of the insurgents.

“It is flying bullets everywhere. Soldiers are just firing anyhow. A bullet pieced the wall into my kitchen but luckily we were sheltering in the bedroom,” said a journalist in the city.

Gombe has been repeatedly hit by suicide attacks and other bombings blamed on the Islamists in the six-year insurgency in Nigeria’s northeast.

Two weeks ago, two suicide bombers blew themselves up outside a stadium, just minutes after President Goodluck Jonathan had left the venue where he had given a campaign speech. Many people were injured.

See the leaflets below…