A captain in the Nigerian Army has been electrocuted while fighting alongside his colleagues to repel an attempt by Boko Haram insurgents to overrun Damaturu, Yobe State capital.
The insurgents, Premium Times reports, marched towards Damaturu at about 4:40 p.m. on Thursday from Gashua, another Yobe community just north of Damaturu, military sources said.
As residents scampered for safety, troops from the Nigerian Army 233 Battalion responded to the attacks alongside a contingent of police officers, beating the terrorists back into the bushes.
Military sources said the attack was successfully repelled by 6:05 p.m.
But an Army captain who was amongst the troops that responded to the attack died after a live power cable fell on him.
The Nigerian Army 27 Task Force Brigade confirmed the officer’s death in an internal message to other military departments. PREMIUM TIMES has withheld the officer’s name because the military had not completed the notification process to his loved ones.
A spokesperson for the Nigerian Army confirmed the attack in a WhatsApp group of defence reporters on Friday evening.
He said soldiers destroyed one of the vehicles belonging to the insurgents. The statement, however, was silent on the captain’s death.
The incident comes as the military was announcing that 24 suspected Boko Haram members of the Islamic State faction had surrendered.
Eight women were among those said to have turned themselves in, and they were all taken into military custody after allegedly confessing to being members of the dreaded sect that has killed thousands since 2009.
