A group of suspected repentant Boko Haram insurgents, on Wednesday, May 1, 2024, stormed the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and the Nigeria Customs Service checkpoints at Kasuwan Fara, a suburb of Maiduguri metropolis, chasing away the personnel on duty and setting ablaze all shelters at the checkpoints.
The incident, according to Zagazola Makama, a counter-insurgency media expert, followed a fierce encounter between the suspected ex-Boko Haram combatants and the police at the Kasuwan Fara Divisional Police Office.
The suspected repentant insurgents, reportedly wearing military uniforms, had pounced on the police office to forcefully set free their eight colleagues arrested in the suburb over criminal activities bordering on dealing in hard drugs and others.
The arrest was made on April 24 during a raid carried out by the police on the notorious spot at the criminals-ridden Kasuwan Fara.
It was gathered that due to the rise in criminal activities and sinister operations by drug peddlers comprising dismissed military personnel, repentant insurgents and other hoodlums, who assemble there to conduct nefarious activities, the area had since been earmarked for closure by Borno State Government.
The April 24 raid, where the eight suspected repentant insurgents were arrested and 426 bottles of spirits such as dry gin confiscated, was conducted to sanitize the area, pending the final closure.
The arrested suspects were detained at the Kasuwan Fara police division since the day of their arrest.
Subsequently, at around 7:40 am of Thursday, May 2, a dozen of the suspected repentant insurgents in military uniform, reportedly stormed the Kasuwan Fara police station in an attempt to rescue their arrested fellows.
The Divisional Police Officer alongside his men were able to repel the attack while the perpetrators fled.
Consequently, the assailants, in an apparent transfer of aggression, reverted to attacking NDLEA and NCS personnel checkpoint along the Maiduguri-Gubio road Kasuwan Fara, where they burnt down the checkpoints alongside the sandbags heaped on the road and fled the scene.
Borno Police Command spokesman, ASP Kenneth Daso, who confirmed the incident, said investigations are ongoing to apprehend the attackers, and the arrested eight suspects have been transferred to Anti-Crack Squad Division Headquarters for further action.