Musdapha Ilo, Maiduguri

Gunmen suspected to be members of the outlawed Boko Haram sect in the early hours of Wednesday attacked Banki town in Borno State, chasing off policemen at the police station and slicing the throats of residents,

The attack is not the first the town has recorded as it had been torched by the sect several times in the past, sacking security agencies.

Confirming the incident, the state commissioner of police, Lawan Tanko, told journalists that a policeman was killed while several others were injured.

“I can confirm there was an attack on Banki town by suspected members of the Boko Haram group in the early hours of Wednesday in which my station in Banki was partially affected. I lost an officer and some sustained injuries,” he said.

Survivors said the attackers came in from nearby bushes in motorcycles and Hilux Toyota vehicles and brandishing sophisticated weapons.

“The attackers used rocket propellers to attack the station which caught fire immediately. Some of the policemen tried to engaged them in a shoot out but they realised that the invaders had superior power so they had to run,” one of the survivors told journalists.