Boko Haram Falling: Three Members Killed in Maiduguri

At least three suspected members of the dreaded Boko Haram have been shot dead by the Joint Task Force in Nigeria’s northern city of Maiduguri on Monday. The group was intercepted while trying to burn down another school in the city.

“Around 3:00 am (0200 GMT) today, men of the JTF interrupted five suspected members of Boko Haram trying to burn down a school in the heart of Maiduguri metropolis,” Lieutenant Colonel Hassam told newsmen in a telephone conversation.

“Three of the suspects were shot dead while two others were shot and injured. They are now in our custody,” Confirmed the Joint Task Force (JTF) spokesperson.

Recovered from the scene were a number of locally made explosives which they had wanted to use to raid the primary school in the Lamisula district of the city, he revealed.

At least, five schools have been destroyed by the dreaded sect members in less than two weeks of an intensified campaign and change of strategy.

The Islamist Boko had claimed responsibility for the series of attack witnessed in the state, saying the action was necessary due to the ‘attack’ on an Islamic seminary in the city by the JTF.

The alleged spokesman of the group, Abul Qaqa, had on February 26 after the bombing of a church in the central Nigerian city of Jos, affirmed that the school attacks were due to the “indiscriminate arrests of students of Koranic schools by security agents”. Hence their attack on school was in retaliation to this arrest, demanding that the students be released, if not, the attack would continue.