Tragedy struck yesterday in Gombe when? gunmen attacked a church in the state capital, killing about six people and wounding several others.
Pastor Johnson Jauro of the Deeper Life Christian Church in Nasarawo within the Gombe metropolis said the attack occurred at about? 7 p.m.
The Associated Press (AP) also quoted Jauro as saying that he heard gunfire everywhere and by the time the shooting ceased he had lost his wife in the assault on the church.
Though details of the attack were sketchy as of press time, the police however confirmed the attack but declined to offer any details.
But no group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.
The assault came as the North East continues to face attacks from the radical Boko Haram sect.
In a related development, residents of Dala Ward in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, on Wednesday night when another group of suspected gunmen also said to be members of the Boko Haram sect, allegedly attacked members of the same family, killing an 80-year-old father, Mr. Musa Durkuwa,? and his son, Usman Musa Durkuwa, leaving an aged woman wounded.
An eyewitness told LEADERSHIP that the incident occurred at about 8.30pm when two gunmen drove in an unmarked Volkswagen car and trailed the retired civil servant to his family house and shot? him dead alongside his son.
Although the late Durkuwa’s wife, Mrs. Hannatu Musa, survived the attack, she was shot in the leg and hand and was responding to treatment at an undisclosed hospital.
According to the witnesses, the trio had just come out from the house and were about to enter a waiting car when the assailants blocked their exit and fired several shots at them.
The incident had caused pandemonium in the area as people had to scamper for safety while the attackers fired several warning shots before fleeing the scene.??
Sources at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH) told journalists? that? both the father and his son died on the spot of the attack just as their remains? riddled with bullets were deposited at the morgue of the hospital.??
Spokesman of the Joint Military Task Force (JTF), Lt.-Col. Hassan Mohammed, confirmed the incident, saying, however, that a team of soldiers deployed to the area had succeeded in apprehending the assailants after a shootout.
He said: “Two gunmen suspected to be Boko Haram members had on Wednesday at about 8.30pm attacked members of the same household in Dala ward, killing a father and his son, while an old woman was wounded”.?
According to Mohammed, JTF personnel had received a distress call from some good samaritans in the area and hurriedly arrived? the scene and engaged the suspected killers in a gun duel.
Meanwhile, unidentified gunmen have killed two people at Jubulee Hotel, Sabon Layi, in? Gombe.
Confirming the incident, Gombe State police public relation officer ASP Ahmad Muhammad, said the two people were shot death by unknown gunmen on Wednesday night at about 10pm.