Plc, in Gombe State, revealed that the suspected Boko Haram terrorists
group, who carried out a deadly operation on the village on Tuesday,
went away with dynamites fully loaded in eight Toyota Hilux Vehicles.
The terrorist group had on Tuesday launched attacks on the border
towns of Nafada and Ashaka in Funakaye Local Government Area of Gombe
State as well as Ngalda and Fika towns in Fika Local Government Area
of Yobe State.
The attacks claimed scores of lives in both Nafada and Fika, in Gombe
and Yobe states, respectively.
Some Ashaka residents said that the insurgents after taken control of
the company and the town, gathered the residents together and preached
their strange brand of Islamic ideology to them.
They also promised the people that they were not in the area to hurt anyone.
"Yes, the group came here without killing anybody but they went away
with eight Toyota Hilux belonging to Ashaka Cement Plc which they
fully loaded with dynamites taken from the production site of the
company after preaching their beliefs to the residents," a resident
said.
He added that the Hilux vehicles were the property of the company.
Also, a security source, who did not want to be mentioned, told
journalists on Wednesday that seven travellers along the
Gombe-Potiskum highway were killed around Fika town by the insurgents.
He said that the killing of the seven came moments after a popular
religious cleric and three of his apprentices were killed in Nafada on
the Gombe/Yobe border.
The Police Public Relations Officer Gombe Command, Mr. Fwaje Atajiri,
who confirmed the raid of the area, said the unknown gunmen torched
the police station, the local government and the Peoples Democratic
Party's secretariats in Nafada town.
Atajiri said that their efforts to enter Bajoga the headquarters of
Funakaye Local Government Area were repelled by security forces.
He also said the security operatives were not aware that dynamites
were taken away by the insurgents, but revealed that the command had
commenced investigations into the attack, promising to address the
media on the situation at a later day.
He however confirmed that a cleric and three others were killed in
Nafada while a police man who was wounded during the raid had been
taken to an undisclosed hospital in the state for treatment.
"I can confirm the attack on the two Local Government Areas of the
state. The number of casualty is four while a police man was injured
during the attack and he is being treated. Our team of investigators
have commenced inquiry on the attack and I can assure you the media
will be adequately briefed as things unfold," the PPRO told
journalists.
But the management of the cement company on Wednesday announced that
normalcy had returned to the Ashakacem plant after insurgents entered
the plant on Tuesday afternoon.
The cement firm in a statement issued by the Country Communications
Director, Lafarge Africa Plc, Viola Graham-Douglas, said, "Ashakacem,
which is located in Gombe State in the northeastern region of Nigeria,
was the target of an intrusion by people who were strangers to the
plant. However, the situation has now stabilised and there is no
report of any injury to employees or damage to the plant."
Ashaka is located in Funakaye Local Government Area of Gombe State.
Tuesday's attack of Ashaka by the insurgents is the second, as the
dreaded sect members had carried out an attack on some financial
institutions in the town in 2012.
Meanwhile, the International Committee on Red Cross has lamented
difficult conditions of 50,000 Nigerians, who were displaced by the
Boko Haram's attacks.
The ICRC, in a statement on its website on Wednesday , said the
committee had launched an emergency operation after assessing
conditions of the displaced people.In the statement, the Head of its
delegation in Nigeria, Karl Mattali, said that the Nigerian Red Cross
Society had completed the distribution of food and household
essentials "to over 50,000 people living in extremely difficult
conditions."
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