Suspected Boko Haram insurgents on Friday raided two villages, Mairi and Malari in Konduga Local Government Area of Borno, killed four persons and razed houses in the communities.
NAN reports that the attacks came barely one week after the Dalori massacre in which some 100 persons were killed.
Some residents in Mairi told newsmen that the attackers arrived at the village on bicycles at about 8.30 p.m.
“The attackers came on bicycles and started shooting sporadically.
“The community was taken unawares as many people were relaxing after the late night Muslim prayers,’’ Malam Baana Bukar, a resident said.
Bukar said that the attackers set ablaze buildings and ransacked the community.
He said, “We took to our heels to escape the attack.
“When we returned in the morning, we discovered that four persons (three women and one man) had died.
“The women were roasted after their houses were set ablaze by the attackers but the man was shot dead with a gun during the attack.’’
Malam Ahmed Tijjani, the Vice Chairman of the local vigilante-civilian JTF in charge of the Konduga local government confirmed the report.
He said that the attackers also raided an adjoining village, Malari.
“They attacked Malari village after Mairi but the people had escaped before their arrival when they heard gunshots,’’ he said.
Tijjani said that the insurgents set ablaze all private and public buildings in the village.
Alhaji Babakaka Garbai, the Senator representing Borno Central at the National Assembly, who also confirmed the incident and expressed shock at it.
“Yes, they killed four persons here and burnt all the houses,’’ Garbai said when he paid a sympathy visit to the communities.
He said that the surrounding villages had been deserted as the villagers had fled en masse for fear of attacks by the insurgents.
...We will not vacate Dalori – Monach, residents, vow
The District Head of Dalori, Alhaji Usman Lawan Dalorima and residents have informed President Muhammadu Buhari and Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State that no amount of pressure from Boko Haram attacks will compel them to desert their community and become refugees in Maiduguri.
They insisted that despite the calamity that befell them, penultimate Saturday, where up to 150 people were killed and houses burnt down by the insurgents, they would stay back in their ancestral home, as death, according to them, is inevitable in any society.
The stakeholders, including the Borno State Chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC), Alhaji Ali Bukar Dalori, made their position known at the destroyed palace of the District Head when Buhari, represented by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr. Babachir David Lawal, led three ministers on a condolence visit to Dalori.
The residents also kicked against the digging of trenches around the community by the military to protect them from further Boko Haram attacks, calling on government, particularly NEMA, to provide them with food items and rebuild their destroyed houses instead.
“We are grateful for the visit to sympathize with us over the unfortunate attacks last Saturday, but we are appealing to government to stop the ongoing digging of trenches around our community, because these trenches will prevent our people whenever there is an attack, from fleeing as an escape route in the community.
“We are not going anywhere. This is our land and we have no other place than Dalori. We are not against deployment of security personnel to this community, but my people are strongly against surrounding them with trenches,” the APC Chairman said on behalf of the community.
Responding, the SGF said the team was in Dalori on behalf of Buhari who was on official foreign trip at the time of the attack, and prayed God to grant eternal rest to those who lost their lives in the attacks and wished the injured quick recovery.
-NAN
