As news of the killing of 21 insurgents in Damaturu, Yobe State capital by men of the Nigerian Army rent the air on Saturday and give hope that the war against the Boko Haram insurgency in the northern part of the country is gradually being won, there were reports that several soldiers, policemen as well as civilians were among the casualties of Thursday attack.
Eyewitnesses told Sunday Independent that before the soldiers could wake up to repel the insurgents, some of them had been killed in a surprise attack in the town by the militants.
The source said the attack took the soldiers by surprise because Damaturu, the Yobe State capital has not witnessed any major attack of the insurgents in recent time, a development that gave the people of the town the feeling that the worst days were over.
But to the surprise of everyone, some suspected Boko Haram insurgents launched coordinated attacks on military formations and other security facilities including the newly established 232 Army Battalion at Kukareta, along Maiduguri-Damaturu road at about 5.30 p.m. last Thursday.
The insurgents were alleged to have stormed the town through the NNPC Mega Station at the outskirt and opened fire on soldiers and policemen at a military sentry in front of the petrol station, who were not at alert to the danger looming around them.
An eyewitness said the militants came in a convoy of about three Hilux vehicles painted in army colour with guns mounted on top of the vehicles with the insurgents too and started shooting as soon as they came to the main road and unknown to most of the people the militants had surrounded the soldiers at the military check-point.
According to report,it was during the attack on the sentry that a staff of Abuja-based Daily Trust newspapers in the production department of the Northeast Regional Office, Abdulwasiu Akinsanya who left Maiduguri with his family on Thursday to proceed on vacation was killed.
A staff in the newspapers' regional office Maiduguri told journalists that: "He ( Abdulwasiu Akinsanya was on annual leave and decided to travel with his family.
"His car developed fault and he managed to push the car to the military check-point after pleading with the soldiers so that he could look for a tow-vehicle to get the car to mechanic workshop before proceeding. He was however caught by the insurgents' bullets while he was thanking the soldiers for their understanding and gesture."
It was learnt that Akinsanya was killed alongside the security officers who mounted the sentry and that it was from that point that the insurgents moved to other parts of the town to wreak havoc.
It was as a result of the siege that the army authority initially imposed 24 hours curfew on the city on Thursday and Friday, but the curfew was subsequently reviewed, from between 4 p.m. to 7 a.m. with effect from Saturday, October 26.
