members have ambushed a convoy of
vehicles conveying people returning from a
wedding ceremony, killing scores of them,
including the groom in Bulakuri village,
Borno State.
The fate of the bride and her family members
was unknown as of Sunday when Adamawa
State Government Spokesman, Ahmad Sajoh,
confirmed the incident to the Associated
Press.
Although Sajoh said the wedding fatiha, the
official Muslim ceremony, took place in Firgi
village in Borno State, the Agence France
Presse reported that it held in Michika,
Adamawa State.
The two news agencies however put the
casualty figure at 30 but an Army
spokesman, Captain Muhammed, said it was
five.
"The report received from our troops
indicated that some terrorists attacked a bus
at Bulakuri village and killed five persons ,"
Dole said in a statement on Sunday evening,
adding that the bodies were taken to a
mortuary in Bama.
According to some of the survivors, they were
attacked along the Bama-Banki Road.
That road runs alongside a forest that is a
known hideout of Boko Haram terrorists.
A driver, Kyari Buba, who told the AFP that
he was in the middle of the convoy of about
five vehicles when the gunmen struck, added
that he saw more than 30 dead bodies on the
side of the road.
He said," I was in the middle of the convoy
when the gunmen attacked and I was able to
stop my vehicle on time to open the door
and run into the bush along with the people I
was with.
"When we returned long after the gunmen
were gone, we met a gory scene with more
than 30 people shot dead or slaughtered.
"All the victims were brutally murdered by the
attackers."
Another survivor and friend of the groom,
Japhet Haruna, recounted his escape from the
assailants.
He said, "I wonder how I and few other
people survived the onslaught because it was
well-coordinated. I was in the fifth vehicle in
the convoy and when I realised that the
attackers were out to kill, I ran into the bush.
"I believe it is God that saved me and (a) few
others from their bullets. They targeted
everybody in the convoy - Muslims,
Christians and children."
Haruna said there were about 50 people in
the convoy and that he suspected Boko
Haram to have carried out the attack.
The AP also quoted a minibus taxi driver as
saying, "We saw a lot of dead bodies killed by
gunshots and some by the roadside that
appeared to have been slaughtered" with their
throats slit.
The driver, who asked to be identified only as
Shaibu, told journalists in Maiduguri on
Sunday, that his terrified passengers wanted
him to turn back.
Saturday's ambush came just over a week
after suspected Boko Haram fighters launched
a coordinated assault on security forces in
Damaturu, Yobe State.
Thirty-five bodies in military uniform were
brought to a morgue following the October 24
attack.
Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, had in
a new video claimed that he led the attack.
"Look at what happened in Damaturu," he
said, adding that "since we killed them with
our hands- in fact, I was the commander of
the operation- you cannot say I'm making
conjecture."
Figures released earlier this year said the
Boko Haram conflict had cost more than
3,600 lives, including killings by the security
forces.
Meanwhile, a pastor of the Christ Apostolic
Church, Oregbeni in Benin, Edo State, Philip
Afemikhe, was killed on Saturday by
gunmen.
The hooded gunmen, who stormed the home
of the popular local televangelist, first
attacked a neighbour and her daughter whom
they dispossessed of their mobile telephone
handsets, before breaking into Afemikhe's
room through the window.
They were said to have entered his
bedroom where they shot him dead.
Some sympathisers said the gunmen might
have been hired killers as they allegedly left
the room without taking any valuable thing.
When contacted, the Edo State Police Public
Relations Officer, Moses Eguavoen, said the
police had not been officially briefed on the
matter.
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