Boko Haram bombs bridge linking Borno, Adamawa

The insurgent group also reportedly abducted a police officer’s wife and two children.

Gunmen suspected to be members of the Boko Haram terror group in the early hours of Saturday blew up a bridge that links Borno and Adamawa states during an attack on Limankara, a village in Borno State, witnesses and security operatives said.

The gunmen also reportedly abducted the family of a police officer, including his wife and two children; before virtually destroying the village.

The incident, according to council officials in Madagali Local Government Area, caused over 3000 persons to flee the village into neighboring communities.

Madagali, PREMIUM TIMES learnt is officially in Adamawa State but borders Borno.

The police spokesperson for Adamawa, Othman Abubakar, however, explained that Limankara police station was not within the Adamawa police jurisdiction, but within Borno.

Mr. Abubakar said he had not been briefed on the Madagali/ Limankara attack.

The police spokesperson in Borno could not be reached as at the time of this report.
A resident told PREMIUM TIMES on phone that the gunmen came with heavy arms and engaged the few soldiers in a shoot-out for hours, leading to casualty on both sides.

The source who would not want to be named for safety reasons said “they were really heavily armed when they came in the early hours of today; they also had an armored tanker with them. They burnt down many structures including that of the District Head; and we learnt they went away with the wife and two children of the District Police Officer (DPO). It was at the time they were leaving that they used explosives to blow off the bridge linking Borno and Adamawa state”.

The destroyed bridge, PREMIUM TIMES gathered, serves as an alternate entry point to Borno State and also to Sambisa forest.

Many, including security officials, believe that the attack on the bridge could be a ploy to scuttle easy access of military troops to the area, where the kidnapped Chibok girls were believed to have been held.

Adamawa, like Borno and Yobe, has been under emergency rule since May last year.

Despite the emergency rule, the Boko Haram has killed thousands of people including about 2000 in 2014 alone.
The group has also claimed responsibility for the kidnap of over 250 girls from the Government Secondary School, Chibok, on April 14.