MTN Office, Masts Set Ablaze; Four Killed.

Four men were on Tuesday night killed in Maiduguri, Borno State by assailants believed to be members of Boko Haram. The incident occurred barely a day after a university lecturer and his friend, the secretary of a local government in the state, were killed in a strange manner.

Residents said the four people were killed in a residence at Layi Yorubawa (Yoruba line) Gwange, Maiduguri on Tuesday night.

“Nobody heard about the killing until this morning (Wednesday) when the corpses were evacuated from their houses,” a resident of the area said.

The state’s Police Public Relations Officer, Gideon Jubril, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), confirmed the story.
Jubril said no arrest had been made as at press time.

Also in the early hours of yesterday, unknown arsonists wrecked havoc in the restive state capital as no fewer than five GSM masts belonging to some major telecommunication companies were vandalised.

The state office of the MTN, within the metropolis, was also razed with its mast.

it was observed that masts at Dala Lawanti around Mai Deribe Mosque, Polo Waya Biyu Adam Kolo, Gwange III Primary School, Bulabulin Nganaram, all belonging to MTN, had either been vandalised or burnt.
Sources said some unknown men stormed the MTN office at West End Roundabout in Maiduguri at about 2am yesterday and set the building ablaze while the mast was vandalised.

In the early hours of yesterday, residents expressed shock about the incident, wondering how the arsonists could perpetrate the act during the curfew time with the presence of the Joint Task Force troops in every part of the city.
A resident of the state capital, who is also a school teacher, said: “This is really disturbing because it beats my imagination that people could still come out in the midnight to commit such act in the centre of the city, even with security operatives everywhere. What were the security forces doing and how did they succeed in burning the place without anybody’s noticing or reacting?”

The attackers were believed to be members of Boko Haram.

The Boko Haram sect had early this year issued a threat to launch coordinated attacks on telecommunication companies in the state and the office of the National Communication Commission (NCC).

Abu Qaqa, who had been speaking for the sect, alleged early February that the GSM service providers had been assisting the security operatives to track down their members, warning that the sect would treat the service providers as it was doing to the security agencies in the state.

Curiously, the Joint Task Force (JTF) said it recovered large arm cache with 54 assorted SIM cards from the residence of a suspected commander of the sect in the early hours of Monday within the metropolis.
The JTF spokesman, Lt. Col. Sagir Musa, when contacted, promised to furnish journalists with the task force’s reaction.

Musa had not as at the time of filing the report.
The Commissioner of Police, Abdullahi Yuguda, confirmed the incident but said he was yet to get the details from his Divisional Police Officers (DPOs).

by: TIMOTHY OLA