By Danlami Nmodu
It was a very disturbing news for Nigerians who have relatives living in Azare ,Bauchi State on Sunday afternoon as reports filtered out that gunmen and soldiers were engaged in a fierce gun battle in the town.
Newsdiaryonline.com learnt that those with relatives living near the scenes of the confrontation prayed for the Almighty God to save the lives of the innocent ones as reports of the gun battle reached other parts of the country.
Latest reports said civilians and soldiers as well as the gunmen may have suffered casualties but there has been no official confirmation of the details yet.
After a recent lull in violent clashes between gunmen and security personnel, the last two weeks have witnessed an unfortunate resurgence of bloody incidents across the northern part of the country.The bloodiest so far was the suicide bomb blast which hit the a church at the Military cantonment in Jaji ,Kaduna state.At least 11 persons were killed military authorities said.The authorities have responded swiftly by redeploying top military officers from Jaji.
Next came the equally bloody attack on the Special Anti Robbery Squad ,SARS headquarters in the heart of Abuja.Though the Force headquarters said the attack was repelled, two policemen were confirmed killed in the incident.Two of the attackers were arrested .In that incident also 25 fleeing suspects were rearrested but 5 others escaped .Police spokesman Frank Mba said it was not related to any of the terror cases as people alleged.
Just as the dust over that incident was yet to settle, a cordon and search operation in Zaria led military personnel to a bomb factory in the city in Kaduna state.A 60 year old suspect found there as well as the items retrieved are with the military authorities of One Mechanized Division ,Nigerian Army Kaduna, officials said.
The Azare incident thus comes a part of a resurgence trend in clashes between gunmen and the security forces outside of Borno and Yobe states which have remained the hotbeds of repeated gun-battles of late.
