BEVERLY HILLS, July 22, (THEWILL) – Vigilant police officers stationed at the checkpoint where eight persons were killed on Monday in Damaturu, the Yobe State capital, actually averted what may have been a grand plan by terrorists to launch massive attacks on the state.
The police recovered a large cache of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), powerful mortar bombs and assorted weapons from a vehicle impounded at the checkpoint after the suspected terrorists triggered off the IEDs on them.
Disclosing this at a media briefing on Wednesday in Damaturu, the state commissioner for police, Mr. Marcus Danladi, said his men made the shocking recovery after a thorough search of the vehicle.
He listed the recovered weapons to include six unexploded bombs, four pieces of 81 mm calibre bombs capable of traveling 1000 meter radius and two other improvised ones which were recovered and effectively diffused at the scene.
According to the police commissioner, a woman in the vehicle, crying for help, was carrying with her a bag containing six unexploded mortar bombs which she was still holding at the scene of the blast.
He said the badly injured woman was aiming to trigger the mortar bomb capable of travelling 500 meter radius to claim more lives but her mission was aborted as she was ignored by the officers and men on ground having known her mission.
The woman, according to him, was left to die as a result of the injuries sustained in the blast while the mortar bombs she was carrying were recovered and successfully diffused.
The police commissioner also disclosed that his men on patrol at Bara in Gulani Local Government Area crushed a gang of Boko Haram insurgents and liberated a village market from possible attack. He listed weapons recovered from the insurgents in the encounter to include a General Purpose Machine Gun (GPMG), two AK 47 rifles with two AK 47 loaded magazine, 60 rounds of ammunition, Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) and 500 units of GPMG life ammunition.
