Massacre in Borno:B’Haram attacks wedding convoy, kills groom, 29 others NOVEMBER 4, 2013 BY JAMES AZANIA

Gunmen suspected to be Boko Haram
members have ambushed a convoy of
vehicles conveying people returning from
a wedding ceremony, killing scores of
them, including the groom in Bulakuri
village, Borno State.
The fate of the bride and her family
members was unknown as of Sunday
when Adamawa State Government
Spokesman, Ahmad Sajoh, confirmed the
incident to the Associated Press.
Although Sajoh said the wedding fatiha,
the official Muslim ceremony, took place
in Firgi village in Borno State, the Agence
France Presse reported that it held in
Michika, Adamawa State.
The two news agencies however put the
casualty figure at 30 but an Army
spokesman, Captain Muhammed, said it
was five.
“The report received from our troops
indicated that some terrorists attacked a
bus at Bulakuri village and killed five
persons ,” Dole said in a statement on
Sunday evening, adding that the bodies
were taken to a mortuary in Bama.
According to some of the survivors, they
were attacked along the Bama-Banki
Road.
That road runs alongside a forest that is a
known hideout of Boko Haram terrorists.
A driver, Kyari Buba, who told the AFP
that he was in the middle of the convoy of
about five vehicles when the gunmen
struck, added that he saw more than 30
dead bodies on the side of the road.
He said,” I was in the middle of the
convoy when the gunmen attacked and I
was able to stop my vehicle on time to
open the door and run into the bush along
with the people I was with.
“When we returned long after the gunmen
were gone, we met a gory scene with
more than 30 people shot dead or
slaughtered.
“All the victims were brutally murdered by
the attackers.”
Another survivor and friend of the groom,
Japhet Haruna, recounted his escape
from the assailants.
He said, “I wonder how I and few other
people survived the onslaught because it
was well-coordinated. I was in the fifth
vehicle in the convoy and when I realised
that the attackers were out to kill, I ran
into the bush.
“I believe it is God that saved me and (a)
few others from their bullets. They
targeted everybody in the convoy -
Muslims, Christians and children.”
Haruna said there were about 50 people
in the convoy and that he suspected Boko
Haram to have carried out the attack.
The AP also quoted a minibus taxi driver
as saying, “We saw a lot of dead bodies
killed by gunshots and some by the
roadside that appeared to have been
slaughtered” with their throats slit.
The driver, who asked to be identified only
as Shaibu, told journalists in Maiduguri
on Sunday, that his terrified passengers
wanted him to turn back.
Saturday’s ambush came just over a
week after suspected Boko Haram fighters
launched a coordinated assault on
security forces in Damaturu, Yobe State.
Thirty-five bodies in military uniform were
brought to a morgue following the
October 24 attack.
Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau,
had in a new video claimed that he led the
attack.
“Look at what happened in Damaturu,” he
said, adding that “since we killed them
with our hands- in fact, I was the
commander of the operation- you cannot
say I’m making conjecture.”
Figures released earlier this year said the
Boko Haram conflict had cost more than
3,600 lives, including killings by the
security forces.
Meanwhile, a pastor of the Christ
Apostolic Church, Oregbeni in Benin, Edo
State, Philip Afemikhe, was killed on
Saturday by gunmen.
The hooded gunmen, who stormed the
home of the popular local televangelist,
first attacked a neighbour and her
daughter whom they dispossessed of their
mobile telephone handsets, before
breaking into Afemikhe’s room through
the window.
They were said to have entered his
bedroom where they shot him dead.
Some sympathisers said the gunmen
might have been hired killers as they
allegedly left the room without taking any
valuable thing.
When contacted, the Edo State Police
Public Relations Officer, Moses Eguavoen,
said the police had not been officially
briefed on the matter