Insurgency: DPO, 30 others killed, houses razed in Adamawa

A rampaging band of fundamentalists, on Sunday morning, invaded some villages in Adamawa State.
After the attacks in Koh, Ndikajam, Tabongo and Jat of Girei Local Government Area, a Divisional Police Officer (DPO), Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP) Okozie Okereofor, and 30 civilians were killed.
Majority of the houses in the villages were razed.
One of the eye witnesses said the attackers, brandishing knives, machetes, cutlasses, charms and guns, were more than 100 and they are believed to be from the Fulani stock.
The DPO, who was posted to the local government two months ago, was in charge of Vunokilang Police Station in Girei Local Government.
“He was brutally killed”, said the eye witness.
State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Othman Abubakar, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), said the DPO and members of his team were attacked while on official duty in the affected villages.
“The suspected Fulani attackers raided four villages in Girei local Government area on Sunday morning around 5:30 am, killing scores, including the DPO. They looted foodstuff and livestocks before setting the villages ablaze,” Abubakar said.
Corpses of those killed have been deposited at the morgue of the Federal Medical Centre, Yola.
Some residents told Freedom Online that the attackers were members of Boko Haram.
One of them said: “I narrowly escaped from the hands of the attackers. We have been living together with these Fulanis and we know them but the people that attacked us were strangers. I believe that the Fulanis in our area drafted some strangers which we believe are members of Boko Haram because we have been having unresolved problems with them which led to the death of some people in the past,” he said.
The Acting Brigade Commander of the 23 Armoured Brigade, Yola, Colonel Aba Popoola, confirmed the attack, saying he had deployed soldiers to the area to maintain peace.