Maiduguri, Nigeria (CU) _ Suspected Boko Haram fighters have abducted many travelers yesterday on the Maiduguri-Damaturu main highway and attacked people travelling from Yobe State to troubled Borno State. The news sources said that yesterday afternoon in Maiduguri, the fighters attacked the commercial vehicles traveling the highway and abducted many passengers.

One of the passengers who luckily escaped the kidnap said that the insurgents stopped the vehicles and pulled out the passengers from the vehicle and dragged them along the bush path. He said that the insurgents were heavy armed and at around 1:30 pm on Thursday abducted the passengers on the Garin-Kuturu highway near Auno, Konduga Local Government Area, State of Borno, which is few kilometers from the capital of Maiduguri.

He said that some of the travelers got out of their vehicles and ran back to Damaturu from where they were originally traveling. He said, “When we saw that the insurgents have been cleared off the highways, we trekked back to join our vehicles and started our journey into Maiduguri”.

Another passenger who narrowly escaped the attack shared his experience. He said, “We are very close to the scene of the attack, but the sound of gunshots alerted us and our driver had to immediately reverse the vehicle and headed back to Benisheik town.” Another traveler in the place shared how he escaped the attack. He said, “We left Damaturu to Maiduguri around 12pm after we passed Mainok town and at were a village called Gari Kuturu, just few kilometers to Maiduguri; we started hearing gunshots all over the bush and our driver immediately sped off on high speed.”

A trusted military source said that the Nigerian Army immediately plunged into action and engaged the Boko Haram insurgents for an hour and removed them from the highway and cleared the road and accompanied the travelers to Maiduguri. A driver from the Borno Express Company said that several vehicles were abandoned on the highway as passengers ran in all directions to hide in the bush in order to escape from the insurgents.