Four soldiers were killed when suspected Lakurawa terrorists invaded Kebbe town in Kebbe Local Government Area of Sokoto State on Friday.
It was gathered that about 300 terrorists drove motorcycles and fought security troops in a gun war as they attacked shops, a hospital, and cars.
The heavily armed militants reportedly reached the town at 10 a.m., leading soldiers stationed at a military facility on the outskirts of Kebbe to open fire on them.
Bashar Altine, a security specialist in Sokoto, verified the development, saying four troops were presumed dead during the exchange of fire.
However, the casualty total could not be independently validated at the time of posting this story.
Ahmed Rufai, spokesman for the Sokoto State Police Command, confirmed the event when called by our correspondent and said the command was still gathering details.
Rufai, on the other hand, said he couldn’t confirm whether there were any casualties, including the alleged deaths of four soldiers.
Efforts to seek confirmation from the spokesman of the 8 Division, Nigerian Army, Lt. Col. Olaniyi Osoba, were futile because he had not responded to a message sent to him at the time of filing the article.
According to Altine, after confronting the military, the militants headed into the center of Kebbe, namely the Sabon Gari area, where they allegedly stormed into shops and stole considerable amounts of mobile phones and bread.
He added the attackers also fired on a military vehicle equipped with a rocket-propelled grenade, injuring three of its tires and shattering its windshield.
He claimed that the militants thereafter moved to the general hospital in Kebbe, where they allegedly damaged the windows of vehicles parked on the premises, including the divisional police officer’s vehicle and an ambulance.
“They also seized mobile phones belonging to patients at the hospital,” Altine added.
He further said that the militants stole away four motorcycles belonging to civilians when they began withdrawing from the town. According to him, the assailants eventually left Kebbe in the evening through the police station route and traveled toward settlements west of the town.
“Reports from villages west of Kebbe indicate that they entered Ungushi town, one of the districts in Kebbe Local Government Area,” he said.
Altine also stated that, despite the reported exchange of fire with troops, there was no confirmation that any of the militants were killed.
“As of the time of writing this report, we have not seen the body of even one Lakurawa fighter that the soldiers succeeded in killing,” he said.
