NO fewer than 185 persons including women and children were said to have been killed in an exchange of gunfire when gunmen suspected to be members of Boko Haram engaged officers and men of the Joint Task Force in a deadly shootout that left the commercial border town of Baga in Kukawa Local Government Area of Borno State completely razed down.The Borno State governor, Alhaji Kashim Shettima who was being taken round the town by officials of Kukawa Local Government Area burst into tears as he was told that about 185 persons died and at least 2,000 houses, 64 motorcycles and 40 cars were burnt in the wake of the attack.
The governor, who visited Baga which is a border town 435 kilometres away from Maiduguri, the state capital, was also told by residents that soldiers were responsible for the torching of houses that led to the death of many.
Meanwhile, President Goodluck Jonathan has ordered a full scale investigation into reports of high civilian casualty in Baga, Borno State following clashes between men of the military Joint Task Force and suspected Boko Haram militants
Nigerian Tribune gathered that scores of residents of the town are currently hospitalised with various degrees of burns and that most of the casualties especially the aged ones and children died as a result of the inferno that engulfed houses in the town which were mostly made of thatch houses.
Governor Shettima who visited the town became emotional on sighting the gory sites of burnt houses and vehicles with many residents taking refuge in the bush.
The Commander of the JTF, Brigadier General Austin Edokpaye, explained that the inferno that consumed the town should be blamed on the Boko Haram terrorists who first opened fire on soldiers while using residents as human shield.
A local trader in Baga town who does not want his name in print told our correspondent that the attack started at about 8.00 p.m. last Friday and continued the next day.
He said “Only God knows what we have done to deserve this. But the soldiers were mindless that night in their approach; they killed people and burnt our houses, chased everyone into the bush including women and children. So far we have buried 185 corpses. - some were burnt beyond recognition; others are hospitalised with various degrees of burns.”
Governor Shettima who drove through the town amidst heavy motorcade of security personnel condemned the incident which he said was a ‘nasty occurrence’. At the local hospital the governor commiserated with women, children and aged men who were receiving treatment from the various degrees of burns they sustianed.
Bashir Isa, a grocery merchant said “everyone has been in the bush since Friday night; we started returning to town because the governor came to town today. To get food to eat in the town now is a problem because even the markets are burnt. We are still picking corpses of women and children in the bush and creeks”.
Brigadier General Edokpaye who debunked the allegations by the residents that the shootout was unprovoked said it was the Boko Haram members that attacked them first.
“We lost an officer during the attack on our men on patrol. We’ve received intelligence report that some suspected Boko Haram members usually pray and hide arms at a particular mosque in the town. It was around that mosque that our men were attacked with several of them injured and an officer killed and when we reinforced and returned to the scene, the terrorists came out with heavy firepower including RPGs which usually has a conflagration effect,” Brigadier General Edokpaye said.
Governor Shettima pleaded with fleeing residents to return to their burnt homes as a committee has been set up with a view to providing palliative measures and also called on the Commander to ‘take full charge’ of his operation and ensure he personally supervised his field officers from time to time ‘in order to avert such nasty incidences in the future.
Also reacting to the incident, the Senator representing Borno North and an indigene of Baga condemned in strong terms the killing.
Senator Lawan said that the killing must be treated as a matter of urgent national importance so that the perpetrators can be brought to book in the shortest possible time.
“It is rather unfortunate and regrettable that this huge number of people were killed. I was informed by my constituents that 172 people, mostly innocent civilians, were killed during the clash and this is highly disturbing especially when the federal government has shown some level of commitment to resolving the crisis with the setting up of an amnesty committee,” he stated.
The lawmaker asked the federal government to put up measures of reassuring the affected people of the town and also pay compensation to them, adding that though the soldiers claimed they were provoked, but as professionals they should have fared better by reacting in a way that would not have caused such magnitude of loss of lives and property.
He lamented that if nothing was done to appease the sensitivity of the people of the area the Baga killing has only added to drawing back the federal government’s search for peace.
The Federal legislator therefore called on the Federal and state governments to put in place adequate measures to ensure the protection of lives and properties of the people in the area.
Sagir Musa, a spokesman for the mixed military and police Joint Task Force (JTF) in Borno State, however expressed skepticism about the reported toll.
“There was a clash between the Boko Haram terrorists and the JTF but I can tell you that the death toll was terribly inflated,” he said by telephone.
A statement issued by presidential spokesman, Dr. Reuben Abati in Abuja on Monday night said the president gave the order after receiving preliminary briefings on the incident.
The statement said: “Having received preliminary briefings from the Military High Command on the incident, President Goodluck Jonathan has ordered a full-scale investigation into reports of high civilian casualties in the confrontation between Nigerian soldiers and insurgents at Baga in Borno State at the weekend.
“While the preliminary briefings indicate that the casualty figures being reported by the foreign media may be grossly exaggerated, President Jonathan assures Nigerians and the global community that the Federal Government of Nigeria places the highest possible value on the lives of all citizens of the country and that his administration will continue to do everything possible to avoid the killing or injuring of innocent bystanders in security operations against terrorists and insurgents.
“Rules of engagement for the military and security agencies are already in place for this purpose and the investigation ordered by President Jonathan into the incident in Baga is to amongst other things, determine whether or not these rules were fully complied with.”
The statement added that the President has also ordered the National Emergency Management Authority (NEMA) and Federal health agencies to liaise with the Borno State Government and take urgent steps to provide immediate relief and medical support for all who suffered losses and injury in the fighting at Baga.
He commiserated with all those who have regrettably lost their lives in the fighting, including the soldiers who gallantly made the supreme sacrifice in the operation against terrorism, insurgency and insecurity in Nigeria.
“The President is deeply pained by the continuance of these needless deaths and will continue to do all within his powers to achieve lasting peace, security and stability in all parts of the country,” it added.
It said it was his hope and expectation that the National Committee which he would inaugurate on Wednesday for dialogue and the peaceful resolution of security challenges in the North would contribute significantly to ending the continuous loss of lives to wasteful violence.
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