Boko Haram terror group has abducted the Vice Chairman and two councillors of the Biu Local Council in the Kamuya-Buni/Yadi axis in Borno and Yobe states.

Alhaji Saidu and the two councillors, representing Zarawuyaku and Miringa wards, were elected in last Saturday’s Local Government Elections.

Confirming the incident on Thursday in Maiduguri, a credible security operative source revealed: “Besides the kidnapping of three new council officials, an unspecified number of persons were also abducted on Wednesday evening in a Hisbah bus along the same road, while travelling from Potiskum to Biu.”

The source added: “Yesterday’s abduction by the suspected terrorists along the 130km Damaturu-Biu road occurred on Wednesday, when the elected politicians were travelling from Biu, the council headquarters, to Maiduguri.”

The source further revealed that one of the kidnapped councillors was the former vice chairman of Biu council.

An anonymous Miringa community leader has appealed to the Borno State government, military, and other security agencies to intensify their efforts in the rescue of over a dozen captives from Sambisa Forest.

Relatedly, the Buni/Yadi-Miringa axis continued to remain a death trap, as many motorists, commuters, and farmers were kidnapped and killed by Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) terrorists in the last seven years.

In other news, a suicide bomber struck a military position in northeastern Nigeria near the border with Cameroon, killing at least five soldiers, security and local defence sources said.

The attacker targeted a military position in Firgi near the town of Pulka in Borno state on Sunday, sources told AFP on Monday night and Tuesday morning.

Militants have intensified raids on military bases in the northeast this year, as a years-long jihadist insurgency grinds on.

“I counted five bodies lying in blood at the back of my house,” said Umar Sa’idu, a member of a community government-sponsored militia group, who helped transport the victims to hospital.

“After some hours, medical personnel at UMTH (University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital) confirmed that all five victims we gave escort to had died,” he told AFP by phone.

Suicide bombings, one of the defining tactics of Boko Haram at the height of the insurgency more than a decade ago, have become less frequent in recent years as the military has made inroads against the group.

Lieutenant Colonel Sani Uba, the military’s spokesman in the northeast, confirmed the attack but not the deaths.

“Our gallant soldiers shot the attacker when he attempted to carry out the bombing in their own position,” Uba told AFP.