Soldier, five civilians allegedly Killed in Borno

A soldier and five civilians were reportedly killed while three others sustained gunshot wounds after a misunderstanding over the wooing of a prostitute at a local beer joint situated near the demolished controversial hotel ‘Barka Da Zuwa’ along Baga road, Jajeri Community of Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.

The incident according to residents who did not want their names mentioned in the print happened at about 9 pm on Saturday.

‘Barka Da Zuwa’ and other surrounding hotels, bars and accommodation in the area were demolished last year by the order of Governor Babagana Zulum following series of clashes and killings between security operatives and civilians mostly over women of easy virtues, but it appears the location still harbours these set of people who usually patronize the area in the night on a temporary basis to cool off.

It was gathered that trouble started when one Soldier (now deceased) was trying to fix an appointment with a prostitute at the joint, when one young civilian, name withheld and also deceased called the lady prostitute attempting to snatch her from the Soldier, unfortunately, misunderstanding erupted between the two lovers which led to the armed Soldier opened fire on the young civilian and killed him instantly.

The killing of the young civilian did not go down well with other civilians who were also catching the fun, in which, they descended on the Soldier and disarmed him of his rifle and slaughtered him. It was also learnt that immediately when other soldiers discovered that one of their colleagues was killed in mob action, opened fire and killed four other civilians at the scene, while three others sustained gunshot wounds.

All efforts to get the Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Edet Okon proved abortive at press time, but a reliable security report confirmed the incident “Reportedly, at about 2100hrs along Baga road Maiduguri, a soldier had a misunderstanding with some civilians and shot 7 of them, 4 died instantly, while others hospitalized, the soldier was said to have been slaughtered and beheaded by other civilians at the scene. While this is a sad phenomenon, Staff is hereby advised to avoid the area as soldiers might storm the location in retaliation to the event.” The reliable security report stated. Vanguard