Members of a vigilance group in Madagali, a town in Adamawa State, have reportedly killed more than 70 Boko Haram members and handed over seven others to the police.
An online news medium, SharaReporters, reported on Friday that the vigilance group acted after they were tipped off by a local food vendor that the militants were coming to get food before heading out for a major operation to raid villages in the area, usually carried out at night.
The report, however, could not be confirmed from official sources as of press time on Friday.
The vigilance group reportedly mobilised and laid ambush for the militants, a source in the village disclosed.
According to the source, as soon as the insurgents, numbering more than 100, showed up in the village to pick up their favourite meals, the vigilance group attacked them, killing most of them in a hail of bullets.
Friday’s attack was the second time this week that local vigilantes had defeated the rampaging militants. The first time was three days ago when well-armed vigilantes in Kalabalge, Borno State, ambushed a squad of Boko Haram militants.
A security source told SaharaReporters that Nigerians resident in many remote areas of the the North-East seemed to have decided that the best way to repel incessant attacks by murderous gangs of Boko Haram insurgents was to take their destiny in their hands.
A member of the vigilanc group involved in Friday’s ambush told Saturday Tribune that Nigerian soldiers appeared unable or unwilling to wage an effective war against the insurgents.
“They (soldiers) seem to be helpless and to fear the Boko Haram warriors who terrorise us here. But we are not afraid. They are men like us, and we are tired of folding our arms and allowing them to kill us, our wives and our children,” he said.
Foreign military assistance good for Nigeria —Airforce chief
The Chief of Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Adesola Amosu, on Friday declared that the current involvement of foreign military forces in Nigeria’s war against terror would not undermine the nation’s sovereignty.
He said, “When they come in like that for assistance, there will be something like a memorandum of understanding; there will be guidelines and everybody will keep to its own agreement.”
But he declined to either affirm or deny the insinuation that the foreign forces refused to work with some Nigerian security personnel, saying “what you are asking for, I don’t think is what we should say in the open; it is confidential. But it is not what will compromise our sovereignty; we are still working as a nation, and we have made it very clear we will provide the information. If you want extra, you should ask for it, and I think they will be ready to give all.”
Amosu spoke to journalists on Friday at the Air Force Headquarters in Abuja after the decoration ceremony of 12 newly promoted Air Warrant Officers (AWO), who are the main custodian of discipline for other ranks.
