The Borno State Commissioner of Police, Demain Chukwu , meeting with a group of journalists on Tuesday night, denied that any police officer was killed in the Boko Haram attack which occurred earlier in the day.
The commissioner, who appeared to be concealing casualty information, however, admitted to the selected journalists that his men were searching for missing persons and that six officers suffered injuries in the ambush.
The attack, on a joint army/police patrol escorting relief materials, a police contingent and a burial party unfolded at Abari-Dalwa village on the Maiduguri/Damboa road, 30 kilometers from Maiduguri a source told Saharareporters.
The terrorists opened fire at exactly 11:30 am as the 57 members of the MOPOL 51 Police Mobile Force from Oghara in Delta state on special duties to Askira/Uba led the way.
The policemen returned fire but the superior firepower of the militants led to the six injuries, including a serious injury to one Corporal Danladi Ibrahim of the Special unit. A police source said all the police officers are currently undergoing treatment at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital.
In the same convoy, militants fired on another police lorry carrying the body of a female police sergeant, Rahila Antikiriya of the State Investigative Bureau (SIB) in charge of mines and explosives. Another police Sergeant Bala Tiishe of the SIB was shot and killed and his service rifle taken away by the attackers. Mustapha Modu, a civilian driving a truck carrying relief materials, was also killed. The driver of the Nigerian Police truck, Sergeant Mwada Kabura, was injured. The militants also drove away the Police truck with two female police officers in it, as well as several relatives of the deceased. The missing persons are being actively searched for by the police and military in the area.
The terrorists also drove away with them several military and commercial vehicles they seized in the attack.
