Repentant Boko Haram Fighters Burn Down NDLEA, Customs’ Checkpoints
By Kalu Idika
A group of suspected repentant Boko Haram members, on Wednesday invaded the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and the Nigeria Customs Service checkpoints at Kasuwan Fara, a suburb of Maiduguri metropolis, chasing away the operatives on duty and setting all structures at the checkpoints on fire.
A security analyst and counter insurgency expert, Zagazola Makama, who made this known, said the incident followed a fierce encounter between the former Boko Haram fighters and the police at the Kasuwan Fara Divisional Police Office.
The repentant insurgents, reportedly wearing military uniform, had pounced on the police office to forcefully set free their eight colleagues arrested at the suburb over criminal activities bordering on dealing in hard drugs.
The arrest was made on April 24 during a raid carried out by the police on the notorious spot at the criminals-ridden Kasuwan Fara.
“Due to the rise and persistence of criminal activities and sinister operations by drug peddlers comprising dismissed military personnel, repentant insurgents and other hoodlums, who assemble there to conduct nefarious activities, the area had since been earmarked for closure by Borno State Government.
“The April 24 raid, where the eight suspected repentant insurgents were arrested and 426 bottles of spirits such as dry gin confiscated, was conducted to sanitize the area, pending the final closure.
”The arrested persons were detained at the Kasuwan Fara police division since the day of their arrest.
”Subsequently, at about 7:40 am of Thursday, May 2, a dozen of the suspected repentant insurgents in military uniform, stormed the Kasuwan Fara police station in an attempt to rescue their arrested fellows.
”The Divisional Police Officer alongside his men were able to repel the attack while the perpetrators fled.
”Consequently, the assailants, in an apparent transfer of aggression, reverted to attacking NDLEA and NCS personnel checkpoint along the Maiduguri-Gubio road Kasuwan Fara, where they burnt down the checkpoints alongside the sandbags heaped on the road and fled the scene, ” Zagazola Makama said.
The spokesman of Borno State Command, ASP Kenneth Daso, who confirmed the incident, said investigations were ongoing to arrest the attackers, adding that the arrested eight suspects have been handed over to relevant security authorities.
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