Curfew after Adamawa serial killings

Secretary to the State Government Kobis Ari Thimnu, who announced the decision, has ordered security operatives to ensure its strict implementation.   He said only essential services workers, such as those in the health sector and utilities, are allowed to come out for work. The state capital, particularly Jimeta side, was virtually shut down with […]

Secretary to the State Government Kobis Ari Thimnu, who announced the decision, has ordered security operatives to ensure its strict implementation.

 

He said only essential services workers, such as those in the health sector and utilities, are allowed to come out for work.

The state capital, particularly Jimeta side, was virtually shut down with all markets, shops, businesses and offices closed, and all the main streets deserted.

Most people remain indoors as armed policemen and soldiers patrol the streets. Police stations, barracks and other security buildings are being guarded by armed policemen.

The measures followed series of shootings by masked gunmen in three parts of the state (Mubi, Gombi and Jimeta-Yola), leaving about 26 people dead and many more injured.

The attacks began in Mubi, in the northern part of the state, on Thursday night where two people were shot and killed by motorbike-riding gunmen.

When relatives and friends of one of the victims, believed to be an Igbo man, were holding a meeting on Friday to discuss arrangement of transporting his body to his hometown for funeral, armed gunmen stormed the hall and opened fire on them.

They killed 11 people on the spot and the twelfth person died later in the day, police spokesperson Altine Daniel told Sunday Trust.

Several others were also injured in the Mubi attacks, she said.  The gunmen also launched an attack in Gombi town in the central part of the state, but there was not report of casualty and authorities have not confirmed this attack.

The latest attack happened on Friday night at a church in the state capital, Jimeta-Yola, when members of the church were holding prayers.

Gunmen wearing masks stormed the church, known as Christ Apostolic Church located in one of the deprived areas of Jimeta, and opened fire on them.

“We were on the last bit of the prayers when the gunmen came and started firing at us; we were hearing only the sound of gunshots,” one of those who escaped unhurt, Pastor Alphos Demoris, told Sunday Trust yesterday.

He said eight people were killed in the church and three others in a nearby barbing salon, making the total number of people killed on the spot on. Another victim reportedly died in hospital yesterday, church and hospital sources said.

Some witnesses claimed that the gunmen came on three motorbikes, killed the people and fled.  The pastor said he would not be able to identify any of them because they were wearing masks.

He said police arrived the scene long after the gunmen had disappeared. None of the suspects has been arrested.

Blood stains on the floor of the church, bullet holes in the church’s glassed doors and windows and on the windscreens of parked vehicles indicated the level of the attack.

Armed policemen were still guarding the church at the time of filing this report.

Yesterday armed soldiers had to shoot sporadically in the air to scare away some youth groups near the area to avert an inter-religious clash.

The state deputy governor James Bala Ngilari who visited some of the victims at Yola Specialist Hospital has appealed to the people of the state not to give the incident a religious coloration.

Some people have begun to complain over the strictness of the curfew, saying that they had not stockpiled food and essential commodities when government suddenly made the announcement.