40 killed in fresh Borno attack

Forty people were killed on Wednesday in a fresh attack by gunmen on a border community in Borno State.
The gunmen were said to have arrived at Gurmushi, Marte Local Government Area and opened fire on the residents in their houses and those on their way to the mosque for Subhi, an early morning Muslim prayer.


Sources in Maiduguri told journalists that the gunmen believed to be Boko Haram insurgents, also razed down houses in the village before fleeing.
One of the sources said, “I counted over 40 corpses littered on the ground, while the village was razed down completely, most of us ran into the bush for our safety.”

The source also told the British Broadcasting Corporation on the telephone that 12 persons were injured in the
siege. She   said that many other residents of the village fled to a Cameroon settlement for fear of a repeat attack by the insurgents.
This claim could not however be verified from the military or police authorities in the state at the time of filing this report.

A military source told journalists that the incident had not been reported to the security and military people in Maiduguri.
However, a United States security expert, Ambassador Daniel Benjamin, on Wednesday described Boko Haram as
the world’s deadliest terror group.

Benjamin,who delivered a lecture at the 2nd International Conference for Democracy and Good Governance in Port
Harcourt, Rivers State, said the sect attained the status after it was observed that it kills a minimum of seven persons in each attack.
The former Head, Counter-Terrorism Bureau, US State Department, delivered a lecture on ‘‘The Nigeria security challenge and its implication for internal, Africa, and Trans- Atlantic relations.’’

He stated that despite the Boko Haram status, Nigeria could not be described as a war-torn country like Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Benjamin said, “By 2012, Boko Haram was the second most deadly terrorist group in the world after Afghanistan’s Taliban. Taliban killed more people than Boko Haram then.
“Currently, Boko Haram is the deadliest terrorist group, killing at least seven persons per attack. Boko Haram has
already become a major menace to countries like Cameroon, Niger and Chad.”

Also, the founder of the Centre for Value and Leadership, Prof. Pat Utomi, cautioned that no administration could accomplish anything without legitimacy.
Utomi, who delivered a lecture titled ‘‘Nigeria’s Democracy: Issues and Challenges,’’ maintained that only democracy could sustain legitimacy.
In his remark, the Rivers State Governor and Chairman of Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, pleaded
with Nigerians to vote out the Peoples Democratic Party in 2015.

Explaining that Nigeria was in need of change, Amaechi said, “Let me ask you this question: Do you like the way Nigeria is being governed now?
“We have one answer. Vote those people who have kept us in this condition out. Vote them out; whether they are from the Niger Delta, or Southern Delta, whatever Delta.”