Boko Haram’s armoury found inside church

THE arrest of a terrorist who claimed to be a Cameroonian and an arms courier for the dreaded Boko Haram sect has led to the discovery of a large cache of arms and ammunition hidden on the premises of a burnt church in Borno State.

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The weapons, which have now been recovered by troops, include anti-aircraft guns, Rocket-Propelled Grenades (RPGs) as well as General-Purpose and other brands of machine guns. They were found buried in the premises of one of the churches earlier burnt by terrorists in Kalabalge Local Government Area of Borno State.

Major-General Chris Olukolade, the Director of Defence Information, who is on an operational tour of the troubled areas in the North-East, in company with the Chief of Army Staff, Lt-Gen Kenneth Minimah, and the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Adeshola Amosu, said in a statement that the troops also recovered from the location thousands of rounds of ammunition and links.
According to him, the middle-aged terrorist, who was one of those captured in recent raids, disclosed during interrogation that the weapons were stockpiled to be used in a pending attack on some communities around Nigeria-Cameroon border.
Olukolade disclosed that the weapons have all been evacuated, while guard locations and patrols are being maintained in the general area and surrounding localities.
He added that troops on Friday continued with various operations assigned to the formations involved in the counter-terrorist campaigns, and that “the caves of a particular mountain captured overnight is undergoing a thorough search for terrorists who are believed to have fled there in the wake of the ongoing offensive on various terrorist enclaves.”
Meanwhile, the Chief of Army Staff, Lt-General Kenneth Minima, has been checking on deployment and troops’ disposition in various locations of the counter-terrorist campaign in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states.
The army chief, who was in company of his Airforce counterpart, Air Marshal Adesola Amosu, also visited troops who have been wounded in the course of the operation so far in the Military Hospital, Maiduguri.
The military chiefs were assured by the Commander of the hospital, Brig-General Okeke, that most of the wounded soldiers were in stable condition and that some who have recovered very well have expressed their desire to rejoin their units and colleagues in the operation.
Catholic Church loses 109 members, seeks tougher measures against terrorists
The Catholic Diocese of Maiduguri lost no fewer than 109 of its members in recent attacks on the North-East by terrorists. The Maiduguri Diocese comprises three north-eastern states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe.
Addressing a press conference at the Saint Peter’s Minor Seminary, Yola, the Director, Social Communications Directorate of the church, Rev. Father. Gideon Obasagie, lamented the persecutions being suffered by Christians in the hands of the Boko Haram terrorists.
Rev. Fr. Obasagie said unless the Federal Government took drastic measures to protect Christians living in the three insurgency-ravaged states, “Christians living in the areas will be completely wiped out as the scale of violence being meted to them is unfathomable.”
According to him, the Catholic Diocese of Maiduguri, especially the Saint Augustine Catholic Minor Seminary School in Shuwa, Madagali Local Government Area of Adamawa State, has been the worst hit. The entire communities have been dislocated, with many of the worshipers fleeing the affected communities, while the remaining people live in perpetual fear.
Narrating his experience when the terrorists attacked his school in Chakawa, the Rector of St. Joseph’s Minor Seminary, Rev. Father Alexander Miskita William, said when the terrorists came into the town, they started firing shots.
“We were surprised to note that insurgents had launched attack in the area, even as we knew the military were deployed to the area to curtail such attack. We were told that Boko Haram was on the rampage, so we gathered the students as we had no alternative other than to move,” he said.
He said further: “When we heard the chanting of Allahu Akbar, we immediately took the 240 students in the school to safety through the perimeter fence, and we spent the night in the bush.”
He noted that the attack was premeditated to kill him, as the assailants kept asking of the priest while the operation lasted.
“There was a crippled man in the school who could not escape before the attack. When they met him, they (terrorists) asked him to take them to the priest, but he told them that he was a stranger and did not know anybody. Fortunately, that was his saving grace.
“They later took two of the security guards who led them to the various places in the school to look for me; but when they could not locate anybody, they razed the chapel, the rector’s house, staff quarters and all the four cars and four motorcycles in the school before killing the guards,” he added.
He said so far, about 90 students had been withdrawn from the school by their parents following the uneasy calm that has pervaded the school.
In his own account, the Parish Priest of Saint Peter’s Parish, Pulka, Reverend Father James John, said that between Gwoza and Bama areas of Borno State, about 23 churches were razed as Christians were forced to leave the areas. Forty-three people lost their houses and property worth millions of naira was destroyed.
Rev. Fr. Jones added that so far, 17 members of his church had been killed, five kidnapped and 43 houses burnt.
Other priests at the press briefing included Rev. Father Jerome Odineze of the St. Dennis Parish; Rev. Father Yakubu Philibus, Co-ordinator of St. Stevens Boys Secondary School, Duhu in Shuwa; Rev. Father James John and Rev. Father Alex Misikita, Rector St. Joseph Minor Seminary, Shuwa, whose pupils have been resettled at St. Peter’s Seminary, Yola, to enable them write their junior school certificate examinations as the attacks in Shuwa had paralysed academics in the school.
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