Gunmen Storm Hospital,Kill Medical Director's Son

JTF, Police, Stage Manhunt In DamaturuGUNMEN, suspected to be members of the Boko Haram sect, stormed the clinic of the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of Umaru Shehu Ultramodern Hospital, Dr. Samuel Ville, killing his eldest son, Emmanuel, aged 26.The Thursday night attack took place at the Suleimanti ward of Maiduguri, Borno State.Dr. Ville narrowly escaped death by scaling the perimeter fence of the facility before the masked men shot his son.A patient who witnessed the incident said: 'The gunmen burst in and started asking after Dr Ville's whereabouts. They forced us to lie faces down. They ordered us to surrender all our cell phones and monies or be shot.'The witness said the gunmen rushed to an adjoining room in the clinic, but unable to find the doctor, carried away his laptop.'After collecting our monies and valuables, they dragged the doctor's son out and shot him dead. Thereafter, men of the Joint Task Force (JTF) rushed here and cordoned off the area, which houses the residence and clinic. That was at about 10pm.'The Guardian learnt that the sect, last month, had planted an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) at the premises.Confirming the incident on Friday, spokesman for the police in Borno State, Gideon Jibrin, said: 'Armed hoodlums, suspected to be Boko Haram members, attacked the residence and clinic of one Dr. Samuel Ville in Bulunkutu, Maiduguri, last night.'He said the suspects initially wanted to assassinate the hospital's CMD, but killed his son, whom they probably thought could identify them.He explained that during the attack, one of the suspects wore a mask to hide his identity.Jibirn said no arrests have been made.Meanwhile, the Joint Task Force (JTF) and the police, in the early hours of yesterday, staged a manhunt in Damaturu in a bid to close in on suspected members of the Boko Haram sect.The operation entailed sealing off of all entry and exit points into the city.Police Commissioner, Mr. Patrick Egbuniwe, said the exercise was a deliberate security operation to 'hole up' suspected terrorists that used the four entry points into Damaturu to launch attacks.Damaturu is 132 kilometres west of Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.He cited the killing of two top Boko Haram commanders and arrests of six others, last Wednesday by the JTF and the Department of State Security Services (SSS) along the Maiduguri-Kano road.He said the terrorists were fleeing Maiduguri to launch attacks on military and civilian targets in Damaturu before they were intercepted and arrested by the JTF in neighbouring BornoState.Egbuniwe said Damaturu is calm and the operation against insurgents is ongoing. He described the measure as effort to protect life and property in the state capital.
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