SAN FRANCISCO, October 25, (THEWILL) – Smarting from Thursday’s deadly attacks on Damaturu, the Yobe State capital, by suspected Boko Haram insurgents, the military authorities on Friday slammed a 24-hour curfew on the state.
The 3 Division Special Operation Battalion, Damaturu had reviewed the curfew time in Potiskum town between the hours of 10pm – 6:00 am to 9pm – 6am just before the deadly attacks on Thursday. But the deadly attacks later in the day altered the earlier arrangement.
Spokesman of the 3 Division Special Operation Battalion in Yobe State, Captain Eli Lazarus, who confirmed the attacks, said security forces in the state capital engaged the insurgents in gun battle.
Lazarus later said in a statement that a 24-hour curfew had been imposed across the state with immediate effect as the battalion continued its operation to rid the state of insurgents.
Though official casualties figure could not be obtained when filing this report, residents of the town said corpses of those killed littered some parts of the town as they recounted the terror unleashed on the town by the gunmen.
“I had to lie face down on the floor of my bedroom for about five hours as the gunshots were continuously heard. I summoned confidence to take a nap for just about an hour after the sound ceased,” a resident of the town said.
Another resident lucky to survive the attacks said if not for the intervention of the security operatives who engaged the gunmen for several hours, perhaps Damaturu would have been grounded .
Eye witnesses said the terrorists launched the first attack at about 5.30pm around the NNPC mega station, in the suburb of the town, to signal their arrival before moving to other parts of the town where they unleashed terror on the residents for about five hours.
Residents of the affected areas said sophisticated guns and Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) were deployed in the attack as the sounds were heard across the nooks and crannies of the town.
