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Bomber kills four, suspected herders attack Catholic seminary

By Njadvara Musa (Maiduguri) and Charles Akpeji (Jalingo)
29 May 2018   |   4:27 am
Four people have been killed and seven others injured in the latest Boko Haram attack in the restive town of Konduga in Borno, the police confirmed on yesterday.This is as gunmen suspected to be Fulani herders yesterday launched an attack on the Catholic Secret Heart Minor Seminary located in Jalingo the capital of Taraba State.

Four people have been killed and seven others injured in the latest Boko Haram attack in the restive town of Konduga in Borno, the police confirmed on yesterday.This is as gunmen suspected to be Fulani herders yesterday launched an attack on the Catholic Secret Heart Minor Seminary located in Jalingo the capital of Taraba State.

The Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr. Damian Chukwu, told reporters in Maiduguri that the jihadists detonated an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) at a village, known as Mashimari in the Konduga Local Council on May 27, killing the four people.Chukwu said that two of the dead were civilians. He, however, did not give the identities of the other victims.

According to him, the bombers sneak into the village through the northern flank of Sambisa forest into Mashimari, a community near an Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp and detonated their IED.He said that the Police Explosive Ordinance Device Corps had been deployed to the area.Konduga has seen countless bloody attacks by insurgents since the crisis hit Nigeria’s expansive northeast almost a decade ago.

On Feb. 17 this year, 22 people were killed in a bomb attack at a fish market in Konduga, one of the deadliest incidents in the recurring bloodbath in the town.Though no life was lost in the Jalingo attack, but one of the priest, Rev. Father Cornelius Koba, narrowly escaped with bullet wounds which he sustained following the attack.

The catholic Bishop of Jalingo Dioceses, Charles Hammawa, confirmed that one of his priests was “badly wounded.”The Bishop, who described the attack as “regrettable,” admonished the government to be more proactive with the issue of security in the state and the country at large.

Visibly dejected he said “ it is regrettable as a church because we are only modeling the children to be good citizens of Nigeria and the world at large.”Appreciating God that no life was lost, he however expressed dismay at the way and manner “ Rev. Father Koba, was shot in the leg.”

The attacked priest said the “ Fulani herdsmen who were armed to their teeth stormed the school premises in their numbers in the early hours of Monday.“They opened fire at my window and destroyed my telephone set and other valuables” adding that “ my major offense is that I asked them to stop grazing and cutting down our trees to feed their cows.”

“The herders forced the students to lead them to my room and beat me with their sticks and immediately I fell down one of them shot me in my leg.”The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) David Mosel, who could not ascertain the nature of the attack, said the command is aware that some gunmen attacked the Catholic Church minor seminary.

Meanwhile, the Theatre Commander of Operation Lafiya Dole, Maj-Gen. Rogers Nicholas has said that 137 Boko Haram insurgents have surrendered to the military for ‘documentation and training’ under deradicalisation process of army.Nicholas yesterday, at the military at Maimalari Cantonment, Maiduguri, said the insurgents surrendered willing to the military through safe corridors available in the front lines of Sambisa Forest,
northern Borno and Lake Chad region.

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