Culled from Thisday

Suspected members of the terrorist Islamic sect, Boko Haram, believed
to have fled their destroyed camps in parts of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa
States as a result of the ongoing clampdown by the military, have
resurfaced in Gwoza, a Borno town attacking four communities and
torching their churches.

It was gathered that the sect members attacked four communities of
Hwa’a, Kunde, Gathahure and Gjigga of Gwoza Hills settlements on
Thursday torching four churches with Improvised Explosives Devices
(IEDS) and petro-bombs.

A resident of Kunde, Tada Garuta told journalists that the gunmen
climbed the hills by foot with explosives and petro-bombs, and after
chanting “Allahu Akbar” meaning God is great, set ablaze four local
churches.

The bandits equally ransacked and emptied the bans of grains of
residents of the communities, and went away with some livestock of
Gathahure and Hwa’a communities before dawn.

The attacked communities are located in Gwoza council area of Borno
State on Mandara Hills, about 151 kilometres south of Maiduguri, the
state capital.
Garuta who spoke to journalists yesterday at the Bama road Motor Park
in Maiduguri, narrated that the hoodlums after torching the church in
Hwa’a community, killed Rev. Jacob Kwiza (rtd) of Church of Christ in
Nigeria (COCIN).

He narrated: “The gunmen threw some explosives at our church, they
forced the retired Reverend to renounce Christianity and be converted
to Islam, but Rev. Jacob defied the gunmen’s threat of being killed.”
“After he refused to renounce his faith. They slit his throat with
sharp objects; and we started to flee for safety, as we don’t know the
next targets of these gunmen.”

He said the people were over-awed with fear and could not immediately
go back to the hills to pick the corpse of the slain clergyman as it
laid on the fields for two days.

Lamenting on the continued fears of hills dwellers in Gwoza, Garuta
said: “after the church at Hrazah was also torched by the gunmen, the
people had to flee and relocated to Ngoshe Ndahang, a hill dwelling
community, 10 kilometres east of Limankara, a border village with
Cameroon and Adamawa State in Borno State.”

On other attacks in the area, Garuta disclosed that the district heads
of Kurana Bassa and Damboa were also killed by gunmen, and that when
the principal (name withheld) of Day Secondary School; Izge was
travelling on his motorcycle to the school on Thursday, he was trailed
and shot dead by unknown gunmen.

He said: “the district head of Kurana Bassa was trailed by gunmen in a
Golf Volkswagen vehicle, before he was shot dead at Mbamba village of
Gwoza council area of the state.”

Speaking on infiltration of fleeing Boko Haram gunmen into the
neighbouring towns of Gwoza, Damboa, Chibok and other communities
yesterday; a top military officer of the Special Operation Force who
does not want his name in print said that the gunmen could have fled
from their destroyed training camps of Sambisa Games Reserve Forest.

He said: “all the attacked towns and communities; where churches and
local residents were recently burnt and killed by the suspected Boko
Haram gunmen, are located at the peripheries and borders of the Borno
forests, which had been reclaimed and being patrolled by soldiers
since the commencement of our operations here in this state.”