Gunmen Kill Prison Official, Ex-police Commissioner, Others

Free Ganye Prison Inmates

IT was a moment of bloodbath in Ganye, the headquarters of Ganye Local Council, in Adamawa State on Friday evening, as unknown gunmen took over the town attacking helpless residents, including security personnel.

The Guardian gathered from eyewitness that the deadly operations, which started about 5pm lasted over three hours with the deadly gang moving from one point to another killing and terrorizing people.

Public places attacked included Ganye Police Station, residence of the Divisional Police Officer (DPO), prison yard, library, education authority and a bank (which was reduced to rumble after the three-hour raid).

A man, who identified himself as John Musa, said 21 dead bodies believed to be victims of the attack including that of a former commissioner of police identified as Mr. Adiei Bila, were recovered Saturday morning.

“When we started hearing the gun shots actually, some us concluded that it was an invasion by an external aggressors, the sound of the weapons was more than an attack carried out by just gunmen that we use to hear. Explosions were going on simultaneously with sound of machine gun. I will never forget that Friday,” Musa recalled.

Another source claimed 30 people, including prison officials and police personnel, were killed.

When Adamawa Police Command Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP Mohammed Ibrahim, was contacted about 11am yesterday, he requested: “Give me 15 minutes, I am in a meeting. I will call you back.” When he was called the second time, he asked for another 30 minutes.

When Ibrahim was reached the third time (about 1:30pm), he did not pick calls made to his two cell phones.

When the Adamawa Prison Comptroller, Mr. Andrew Barka, was contacted at about 2pm, he said he was on his way to Ganye to ascertain the level of damage.

It was also gathered that all the inmates in the Ganye Prison were set free by the attackers.

There were another two separate gun attacks in Yola on Friday night. According to eyewitness, no casualty was recorded.

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