By Blessing Tunoh Residents of Maiduguri have been thrown into panic following the killing and abduction of several travellers alo...
By Blessing Tunoh
Residents of Maiduguri have been thrown into panic following
the killing and abduction of several travellers along the Maiduguri-Damaturu
expressway in Borno State.
The 133-kilometre highway is the only major road that links
Borno to other parts of the country.
The killing and abduction of travellers on Friday is the
latest and deadliest of similar incidents as the insurgents redouble their
activities on the road in recent times.
Witnesses told Channels Television on Saturday that armed
men believed to be insurgents stormed the highway in large numbers and mounted
an illegal checkpoint around Auno, barely 23 kilometres to Maiduguri from where
they picked their victims.
According to them, travellers in scores of commercial and
private-owned vehicles were caught up in the attack.
However, military authorities have yet to confirm the
incident.
Multiple sources also confirmed that the insurgents moved
from vehicle to vehicle, scrutinising and interviewing passengers, asking
non-Muslims and those not dressed like Muslims to step out of the car they were
in.
They also warned the travellers against attempting to escape
and those who tried to beat a retreat were instantly shot dead, a survivor
revealed.
It is not clear how many people were abducted or how many
got killed while trying to escape, but many cars were said to have been set
ablaze.
According to witnesses, troops of the Nigerian Army later
arrived at the scene after the assailants had retreated.
They directed all the travellers to move back to the next
village before they combed the road to ensure it was safe for motorists.
The flow of traffic along the Maiduguri-Damaturu Road has
been heavy lately with many people travelling to and fro the city for the
holidays.
While air travel is presumed the safest means of
transportation in and out of Maiduguri at the moment, many prefer to travel by
road.
This, according to them, is as a result of the high cost of
tickets to and from Maiduguri which is between N100,000 to N120,000 for Abuja
and N170,000 for Lagos.
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