Gunmen suspected to be members of the Boko Haram terror group have blown 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, who reportedly struck in the early hours of Saturday, 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.
The police spokesperson for Adamawa, Othman Abubakar, however, explained that Limankara police station was not within the Adamawa police jurisdiction, but within Borno.
Abubakar said he had not been briefed on the Madagali/ Limankara attack.
A resident said that the gunmen came with heavy arms and engaged the few soldiers in a shoot-out for hours, leading to casualty on both sides.
“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,” said the source who preferred anonymity strictly for safety reasons.
Sources said that the destroyed bridge 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.
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