The Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima, has said Boko Haram fighters attacked a village in the state and killed 56 persons.
The governor, who said this during a presentation of gifts on behalf of President Muhammadu Buhari to parents of abducted Chibok schoolgirls on Saturday in Maiduguri, said 56 persons were killed in Baanu village in Nganzai Local Government Area of the state.
Shettima said, “Boko Haram crisis is a calamity that befalls us, as the insurgents do not discriminate against anybody before they kill. They don’t care if somebody is a Christian or a Muslim neither do they respect tribal affiliations. Just yesterday (Friday) they killed 56 people in Baanu village of Nganzai Local Government, as I am speaking to you their corpses still litter the streets of the village.”
Those that fled from the village who narrated their ordeal to journalists in Maiduguri however insisted that more than 68 persons were killed in the attack.
One of the fleeing residents, Abubakar Suleiman, told our correspondent in Maiduguri that 68 persons were killed while several others were injured during an attack.
Suleiman said many insurgents came on horses at about 8.30pm on Friday and went about killing everybody they came across.
He said, “We had to flee into the bush and after they left, we returned to pick some of our belongings and fled into Maiduguri but before we left I counted 68 corpses. Some were slaughtered while some were shot to death.”
