- Troops were providing security escort to APC delegates from Gubio for their ward congress billed for Damasak.
Scores of Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) terrorists were killed on Saturday when they ambushed a military convoy along Gubio/Damasak highway in the Northern part of Borno State.
Also, a number of soldiers reportedly sustained injuries in the attack while utility vehicles belonging to the troops were forcefully taken away after a gun battle.
Sources said that the troops ran into the ambush at Kareto while traveling to Gubio in Borno State to pick members of the All Progressive Congress (APC) for their ward congress billed for Damasak.
Kareto, which has been abandoned for years due to the terrorists’ activities of Boko Haram/ISWAP, is the hometown of Bukar Gana Kareto, who represents Kukawa/ Guzamala/Abadam/ Mobbar Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives.
The soldiers were deployed to provide security to the APC politicians from Abadam to Damasak, venue of their Ward Congress.
Although Abadam Local Government has been a no go area since 2014, politicians from the LGA were mobilised for congress in Damasak.
But after the ambush, the convoy conveying the politicians returned to Gubio.
And on Sunday, the ISWAP terrorists came under heavy attack as the troops under Operation Hadin Kai shelled their hideouts in the Gubio.
A source said that the ‘merciless reprisal’ onslaught by the military took place after the troops ‘tactically retreated, strategized and invaded’ the location of the terrorists’ hideouts on Sunday.
“The troops, in combat-ready, after yesterday’s sad ambush in Kareto bombarded the insurgents’ locations in Gubio today with artillery gun trucks,” he said.