No fewer than eight people have been killed in Maidugri as gunmen yesterday went on a rampage.The attacks were reportedly carried out simultaneously in several areas by different groups of young men, armed with assault rifles and other dangerous weapons even as the Joint Task Force, JTF, in Kaduna, said yesterday that it raided and demolished a building suspected to be bomb making factory in Rigasa suburb of Kaduna killing five suspected terrorists. The Vanguard newspaper reports that amongst those who were killed in the rampage was a popular oil and gas merchant, Alhaji Abubakar Girigiri Gashua, popularly known as A.A Girigiri Gashua. He is reported to have been killed by two gunmen when the assailants raided the Bolori Stores along Baga road.

Spokesman of the Joint Task Force, Lt. Col. Sagir Musa, confirmed the killing of only three persons, and declined comments on the murder of the businessman. However, the Borno State Police Command confirmed the murder of the businessman. Command’s spokesman, DSP Gideon Jibril, confirming the incident stated that it was not yet clear if Gashua was killed by insurgents as those behind the act were still unknown.