BOKO HARAM ATTACKS YOBE POLICE STATION, 3 COPS WOUNDED

Six armed men suspected to be Boko Haram members attacked Gulani Police Station in Yobe State over the weekend, leaving three policemen injured with one of them reportedly killed by the police. Daily Sun gathered that the gunmen who rode on motorcycles had invaded the police station on Saturday night and taken strategic positions to set the station ablaze when the policemen on duty opened fire on them. But in an ensued melee, three policemen were injured while one of the armed men was killed even as others reportedly fled.

Gulani, headquarters of Gulani Local Government Area and a remote settlement is about 154 kilometres to Damaturu, the state capita, inl the South-west area of the state. Many residents expressed the fear that the returnee Boko Haram men that unleashed violence on the neighbouring Borno State in the last four months might have found their ways into the otherwise serene state.

The state Commissioner of Police, CP Mamman Sule who confirmed the incident in a telephone interview praised his men for their gallantry. 'Yes it is true that a gang of six armed men suspected to be Boko Haram religious sect attacked one of our police stations in Gulani last night but our police officers and men were able to protect the station by killing one of them.'

Sule said the motive of the suspects was to set the police station ablaze, adding that they were unable to do so because the promptness of the policemen on duty who were able to save lives and the police station.

He however said no arrest has been made on the incident, stressing that the command would welcome useful information that could help in trailing the assailants. 'These suspected attackers would be brought to book as soon as investigations are completed based on the information provided by the Gulani communities to the police and other security agents in the area.'

The weekend attack on a police station brought to the fore the belief that a pocket of the Boko Haram returnees might have resettled in the neighbouring Yobe State even as Bauchi still remains one of the hotbeds of the sect's attacks in the north east.