23rd March, 2013
The police authorities in Adamawa state, north eastern Nigeria have revealed the death toll in the terrorist attack Friday in Ganye, where a bank, a prison, a police station and a drinking bar were attacked by gunmen, armed also with rocket propelled grenades.
Adamawa state police commissioner, Mohammed Ibrahim said twenty-five people were killed.
“We have 25 dead from yesterday’s attacks in Ganye, which included a chief prison warder, a policeman and a prominent politician,” said Adamawa state police chief Mohammed Ibrahim.
The gunmen attacked the prison, set free an unspecified number of prisoners, looted a bank and attacked an open-air drinking bar, a prison official and police said. The attack lasted two hours.
They used explosives and assault rifles in their assault on the police station, during which they shot dead a policeman, Ibrahim said.
He said seven people were shot dead in the drinking bar, six near the bank, while others were gunned down either outside their homes or on the streets.
It is not immediately known how much money the gunmen looted from the bank.
The police on Sunday confirmed that 25 persons were killed during an attack on Ganye Town, the headquarters of Ganye Local Government Area in Adamawa by gunmen on Friday.
The prison chief killed was the Deputy Comptroller in charge of Ganye Prison, Malam Baba Musa.
An estimated 127 prison inmates escaped.
“Thirteen places were attacked, including the Divisional Police Station, DPO’s house, prison, beer palour, bank, library and courts,” said Mohammed Ibrahim, the police PRO in the state.
Ibrahim said that the police could not contain the rampaging gunmen because they were armed with sophisticated weapons.
Ibrahim said that none of the 127 inmates that escaped had been re-arrested