Gunmen suspected to be Boko Haram insurgents on Thursday attacked Geidam town in Yobe State.
They shot sporadically, causing pandemonium.
Sources said the terrorists targeted shops, looting goods before setting the shops ablaze.
A resident, Modu Ali, told The Nation that the insurgents also torched the house of a former chairman of a local government, Dr. Mulima Mato.
Command spokesman ASP Dungus Abdulkarim said the police recovered a burnt Hilux vehicle containing two bodies.
He added that it could not be ascertained whether the deceased were Boko Haram members or not.
Abdulkarim said the insurgents went to the general hospital and ordered the nurses to give first aid treatment to their colleagues, before they escaped.
He said the terrorists abducted the district head of Geidam.
Governor Mai Mala Buni has ordered the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) to move to Geidam and support the victims.
In a statement signed by his spokesman, Mamman Mohammed, the governor commiserated with the residents and described the incident as unfortunate.
Buni was quoted as saying that “the attack will not deter the government in its efforts to rebuild, reconstruct and rehabilitate communities destroyed by insurgents.”
He hailed the people for their determination to rebuild their lives and move forward.
The statement said: “The government and people of Yobe State will continue to partner security agencies for the return of peace and security across the state.”
SEMA Executive Secretary Dr. Mohammed Goje said the agency had begun stock taking of the damages caused by the attack.
The Nation
