A female police officer who survived the shootings at the barracks narrated how a team of about 50 men in Police and Army uniforms stormed the Bompai barracks and shot dead nearly everybody there during the chaos immediately after coordinated bombings in the city on Friday. She said the unidentified assailants invaded the place and conducted “systematic killings” shortly after a bomb detonated at the nearby state police command.
She said the operation appeared to be well-timed, as it was executed at a time when people were scampering for safety following the explosions.
“They just came into the barracks in mobile police uniforms soon after the explosions at the police command and took the advantage of the situation shooting every person they saw running for safety,”
“These men deceived us by wearing mobile police uniforms and giving impression they were only there for a rescue mission; they took us by surprise when they started shooting every person they saw,” the officer said.
After the indiscriminate shootings in the open, the men then went house-to-house in the barracks killing people including those who took cover inside toilets, she said.
“The following day dead bodies littered all over the place. It was a sad day indeed; we will never forget this day in life,” she added.
Police Corporal Aliu Abdullahi also told Reuters news agency he saw men in Police uniform shooting people indiscriminately.
“We were in the mess when we saw people running and heard gunshots from the gate, I saw them shooting. You could not differentiate the Boko Haram members from our Police Mobile Force men because they wore the same uniform,” Aliu, who survived multiple gunshots, said.
“They were more than 50. As I tried to run a bullet hit me on my left hand and another shot hit me on my chest I fell,” he added.
Another witness said he saw close to 50 assailants when they attacked the police barracks and “killed every person inside except women and children.”
He said began to climb the wall before they saw him and fired, hitting and injuring him.
The witness, who declined to give his name, said “all of them were dressed in either Mobile Police uniforms or Army camouflage. They also wore black cloth under their service caps. They appeared were more professional in the operation than the military.”
A resident of the neighbourhood surrounding the barracks said at least 100 people were killed at the barracks alone. He said the place was now a ‘ghost town’ as most of the residents had taken refuge in other parts of the city.
He said the barracks which used to be safe place for refugees whenever there were religious or ethnic crisis in town was now deserted.
culled from dailytrust