October 18, 2014 – Less than 24 hours after the Chief of Defence Staff, Chief Air Marshal Alex Badeh announced that it has reached a ceasefire deal with members of the radical Islamic sect, Boko Haram, some radical elements suspected to be members of the sect on Friday and Saturday unleashed mayhem on five villages in Northern Nigeria, killing dozens of innocent people.
The truce announced by the Nigerian military on Friday ordered all service chiefs to cease hostilities towards members of the sect.
Though the statement issued by the CDS said nothing about the fate of the almost 200 girls kidnapped by the radical Islamic sect, Coordinator of National Information Centre, Mr. Mike Omeri said at a press conference that that the truce will enable the sect to enter into negotiation with Nigeria to release the girls adding that the sect has already confirmed that the girls are fine and well.
But security sources told Reuters that that members of the sect made the attacks on Saturday while government sources were in doubt if the attacks were actually carried out by members of the sect. We gathered that talks aimed at releasing the girls will continue in Chad on Monday.
We gathered that the sect attacked Abadam on Friday night, killing at least one person and ransacking homes before attacking Dzur on Saturday morning where they left at least eight people dead.
Three other attacks in Adamawa state on Saturday killed dozens of people.
“I was just boarding a bus when the gunshots started,” Adams Mishelia, who was in the adjacent town of Shaffa, said of the Dzur attack. “People were fleeing into the bush, so I got off the bus and headed to the bush too. I later learned they slaughtered eight people,” he told Reuters.
We learnt that suspected insurgents also attacked three small towns in Michika, Adamawa state.
