From John Adams, Minna
For the second time, gunmen have attacked the military camp in Allawa in Rafi Local Government area of Niger State. The gunmen reportedly went away with a vehicle belonging to the military.
The gunmen numbering about 200 allegedly invaded Allawa town about 10;00pm on Thursday and made straight to the military camp where they reportedly engaged the soldiers in a fierce gun battle which lasted several hours.
According to a source close to Allawa town, there were casualties on both sides but details of the actual casualties was still sketchy as the time of filing this report, even as nobody could go in or out of Allawa town.
A number of the villagers were equally caught in the crossfire between the soldiers and the gunmen, leaving the entire town deserted as the villagers have escaped to the bush.
This latest onslaught by the gunmen came barely one week after a similar attack targeting the Joint Security Task Force camp at Galadiman Kogo led to the killing of 11 members of the security Task Force and an unspecified number of civilians. Houses, food barns, vehicles and other property worth millions of naira were burnt down by the gunmen. in April last year, gunmen had invaded the same military camp in Allawa, killing five soldiers and an Inspector of Police.
This led to the shutting down of the camp by the Military. It was reopened a month later, with more deployments of addition troops to the area. In another development, gunmen on more thanbelieved to be about 300 and riding on about 100 motorcycles, invaded Mariga town in Mariga local government area of the state and rustled over 300 cattle.