Not less than 20 stranded people, including travellers, outside the military-controlled entrance gate of Maiduguri were on Sunday night lost their lives in an attack suspected to be perpetuated Boko Haram.
The governor of Borno State, Babagana Zulum, attested to the atrocious assault of the travelers on Monday when he stormed the scene of the onslaught in Auno, a village 24km away from Maiduguri city centre.
The deadly group was also said to have kidnapped scores of travelers mostly women while setting the vehicles on fire.
Recently, soldiers of the Nigerian military in Borno State erected a gate that they lock at the curfew time, which is 6pm.
Often, long distant travellers are forced to spend the night outside the barricade till 6.a.m. the next day, when the gates are opened.
The gates was erected to checkmate Boko Haram attacks at night, meanwhile, this move been widely criticised by members of the public who worried that making travelers sleep in the bush could expose them to serious danger.
On Sunday, many travelers had to pass the night in Auno, after the soldiers locked the highway.
Witnesses in Auno said the attackers crept out in large numbers around 10 p.m. and opened fire on them while they were sleeping inside the vehicles.
“The gunmen killed more than a dozen and injured others,” a survivor said.
“They also burnt 18 buses and cars and took away other travellers.”
Mr Zulum, who visited the scene early Monday morning, met some of the vehicles still burning.
“Some of the vehicles had charred corpses of travelers, including children,” said a government official who does not want to be named.
“We were told more than 20 persons were killed.”
Mr Zulum, who was accompanied by the Garrison Commander 7 Div Nigerian Army, sympathised with the victims and assured them of his and President Buhari’s administration’s “commitment towards ending the war. “
“I saw some three bodies that were burnt on the ground. I counted about 21 vehicles that have been burnt,” a commercial driver, Mallam Yunusa, who witnessed the incident, said.