The Borno State Police Command claims to have rescued a soldier who was kidnapped along the Maiduguri-Damaturu Road with 15 other people.
The travellers were kidnapped by the Boko Haram/Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) sect in Borno State, according to a statement from the force’s spokesman, ASP Sani Kamilu.
“Police operatives on patrol around Auno axis rescued a soldier attached to 4 Battalion Marte and 15 others from abduction by suspected Boko Haram terrorists.
“The motorists were coming from different locations into Maiduguri but on reaching Yanakiri/Kondori village along Damaturu-Maiduguri Road, they were intercepted and abducted to the bush,” Kamilu stated.
According to a police spokesman, the terrorists were pursued by the crack team of officers, who collaborated with the police Rapid Response Squad to obtain the information.
Boko Haram has ravaged several parts of northern Nigeria.
The security operatives engaged the terrorists in a gunfight, which resulted in the victims’ successful rescue.
To defeat the outlaws, Kamilu revealed that operatives used superior firepower and techniques.
Abductions have increased in the last month on the Maiduguri- Damaturu Road, which is the only road connecting Borno to the rest of the country, with many of the incidents going unreported.
Lieutenant General Faruk Yahaya, the Chief of Army Staff, banned soldiers fighting in the northeast from traveling by road in August and launched a welfare flight program for soldiers on leave.
Military sources confirmed that those travelling to nearby cities such as Yobe, Bauchi, and Plateau are usually escorted by an armed convoy.
