by Musa Abdullahi & Agency Reports
13 persons brutally murdered by Boko Haram group early Saturday launched a rocket-propelled grenade attack on Maiduguri, the capital and largest city of Borno state, after barely 24 hours after Muhammadu Buhari was sworn in as the Nigeria’s president.
According to residents and military sources, the assault damaged to at least five homes and killed 13 people began just after midnight and lasted about three hours. The newly sworn in President has been silence since the attacks by the insurgents surged shortly after his swearing in.
“Boko Haram kept shelling the area with RPGs,” said Hassan Buba, a local leader who detailed the death toll. “… Many people were also injured.”
Malam Yusuf says his wife is one of them, in the hospital after one of her feet was blown off after their home in Maiduguri’s Dala neighborhood was hit before dawn.
“It was deafening explosions all over, as volleys of RPGS were fired by Boko Haram from outside the city,” Yusuf said by phone.
Two Nigerian military officers accused the extreme Islamist group of resorting to indiscriminate RPG attacks — which pose as much, if not more, danger to civilians as anyone else — because troops had repelled their attempts to enter and capture the capital city.
“It was an (act) of desperation,” said one of the officers, who asked not to be named because he is not authorized to speak to the media. “… The attacks were ultimately neutralized, and the terrorists forced to retreat.”
The assault came one day after two explosions ripped through a wedding ceremony in the Borno state village of Alade, about 140 miles (230 kilometers) from Maiduguri.
In addition to the 13 killed, 7 wedding guests died and 30 others were injured in blasts at the start of the ceremony, said local leader Aisami Babagoni, who added that he suspects the explosives were planted ahead of time and “remotely detonated.”
Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno state, Friday promised that his new administration will grant amnesty to members of the Boko Haram sect, who are ready to de-radicalise.
Shettima made the statements at his inauguration ceremony for another term in office on Friday, May 29, the governor said it had become imperative that willing members of the Boko Haram sect ready to surrender be given amnesty.
As at the time of filling in this story, a Mosque is reportedly being bombed by the terrorists in Maiduguri and we are yet to get the number causality.
