Nine soldiers and 56 insurgents might have been killed in the attempt
of the Boko Haram sect to capture Maiduguri on Sunday morning.
The attack on the town began at about 12.30am and could not be totally suppressed until about 11am.
It was gathered that hundreds of heavily armed insurgents tried to
gain entrance into the town through Jinikin-Moronti, on the road linking
Maiduguri to Damaturu along the Jos-Kano highway and close to two major
housing estates, 1000 and 707.
The suspected terrorists were confronted by the soldiers and other
security operatives of the 33 Battalion Barrack at the entrance to the
town.
The battle initially raged from 12.30am to about 3.30am, when the attack was thought to have subsided.
Other security operatives and members of the youth vigilance group
joined in the exercise as the insurgents were successfully repelled.
Just when everyone thought the insurgents had retreated, the
militants came back with renewed vigour, throwing the residents of the
state capital into panic.
As the confusion deepened, the residents could not venture out of
their houses, let alone going to church for the Sunday worship service.
The second phase of the gunfight between the soldiers and members of
the terror group, which started around 5.40am, was successfully repelled
at 11am.
Heavy shelling ricocheted all around the town as the military had to
deployed both ground and aerial battle to suppress the determined
insurgents.
At the end of the siege, nine soldiers were believed to have been felled as the insurgents were reduced by 56 men.
They were said to have equally lost in equipment, three armoured tanks and two Hilux jeeps to the attack.
Some members of the youth vigilance group, who were involved in
repelling the attack, revealed that nine soldiers, who were killed in
the attack, were conveyed by a military patrol van from the scene of the
attack to the Garrison Command along the Pompomari area near the
Military Anti-Bomb Squad around 12.30pm.
Air Force surveillance jet continued to hover over the town as some
pockets of insurgents, who were believed to be in the town, were still
been trailed.
A member of the youth vigilance group, Modu Baana, who spoke to
journalists, said, “It was around 2am when we were alerted of the deadly
move by the terrorists to enter Maiduguri through the Jimtilo
outskirts.
We learnt that over 100 heavily armed men with armoured tanks
and Hilux jeeps were about coming into the town.”
Baana added that the fighter jets helped the ground troops as the
combined operation scattered the insurgents, forcing some to flee into
the neighbourhood having been overwhelmed.
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