THE week ended in Nigeria with members of the devilish Islamic sect popularly known as Boko Haram maintaining its orgy of violence across the northern part of the country, killing no less than XX people in the process.
The attacks included Friday night attack on a divisional police station in Gombe by gunmen suspected to be members of the outlawed religious sect, resulting in the death of 10 people.
Cars within the police station were burnt and the building itself was practically destroyed.
The state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Orubebe Ebikeme, who confirmed this in a telephone interview with our correspondent in Gombe, said the situation is under control although no arrests have been made.
Ebikeme also said that two policemen, two civilians and a soldier sustained injuries in the attack and are now receiving treatment.
A 24-hour curfew has been imposed on Gombe and environs, while soldiers and policemen have installed checkpoints on local roadways to ensure compliance with the order.
A similar attack was also recorded in the Kakuri area of the city of Kaduna, Kaduna State, where persons suspected to be members of the sect killed a policeman. One person injured alongside his daughter.
According to witnesses, about five men had approached a local policeman at a motorcycle repair shop and forced him to the ground before seizing his gun and shooting him to death. The injured man was identified as the mechanic in whose shop the incident took place. His daughter had reportedly brought him food at work.
“Yes. He was a police man attached to our mobile unit along Sabo road,” said the Kaduna State Police PRO, Aminu Lawan, confirming the death of the police officer without disclosing the name.
Two suspected members of the Boko Haram sect were however arrested on Saturday in Minna, Niger State, by the State Police Command.
Police sources say that persons known with the two arrested suspects had allegedly terrorized Minna, the Niger State capital, and its neighboring communities for some time, resulting in the death of 5 police officers so far.
Weapons and ammunition were found on the suspects who were arrested as they rode a motorbike to an unknown location.
The killings continue even as president Goodluck Jonathan said in a statement released through his communication aides on the occasion of the new Lent season.
According to the statement, the president “felicitates with Christians in the country as they begin the observance of Lent for the year 2012.”
Urging the Nigerian Christian community to “reflect deeply”, President Jonathan asked Christians to “commit themselves to making those virtues, including brotherly love, tolerance, humility, service to others, honesty, fairness and equity more manifest in their daily lives.”
There was no word from the president as of press time about the bloody week that Nigerians had just experienced.