Gunmen kill two in Borno, Yobe

By The Guardian Newspaper

SOME yet-to-be-apprehended gunmen on Sunday in Ajari ward of Damaturu, Yobe State shot to death a policeman, Mamman Shettima, at his brother’s residence at about 7.p.m.

Also, a former council chairman in Borno State, Lawan Kabu, was killed at his father’s residence in Damboa last week Friday afternoon by two gunmen.

The Damboa gunmen, according to Borno State police authority, pretended to be sympathisers who came to commiserate with Lawan over his father’s passage. Damboa is 187 kilometres south of Maiduguri, the Borno State capital. The town’s police station and a bank were bombed by suspected Boko Haram members in April and November last year, killing nine people including four policemen.

Confirming Shettima’s killing yesterday, Yobe State Police Commissioner, Tanko Lawan, said: “Our colleague was gunned down last night at his brother’s residence in Ajari ward of Damaturu, the state capital at about 7p.m. But we have identified the suspected gunman that killed the officer and will get him, God’s willing.”

An eyewitness and resident of Ajari ward also said: “We were sitting close to them when the two men came and shot him. They first threw an explosive device to scare people away from the house, before shooting him at a close range,” adding that the gunmen fled the scene, leaving the slain Shettima in his own pool of blood.”

Yobe State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Abdulkadir Song, said Shettima was “serving in Yusufari Council of the state. He was shot in the stomach by unknown gunmen in front of his brother’s house in Ajari ward, Damaturu.”

The Borno Police Commissioner, Simeon Midenda, lamented that people have not been forthcoming with information on the attackers.

He stated: “How do you expect the police to get the killers arrested, when the people who live among the sect members are not ready to assist us?”

Meanwhile, Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State has condoled with the family of the slain former council chairman at the third-day prayers for the deceased in Damboa.