10.01.2012 Nigeria. The Islamic extremists attacked Gombe on Thursday, January 5, and the death toll has now reached nine Christians. The following weekend, the same group of terrorists killed at least 21 Christians in neighboring Adamawa state, according to sources. Members of Boko Haram, which wants to impose Sharia law in Nigeria, came out of a mosque near the Deeper Life Bible Church in the Boso area of Gombe, the capital of Gombe state. They shot at a group of Christians who were attending a weekly revival meeting, according to local sources. Silas Ugboeze, who was in a coma for three days in hospital in Gombe, died 20 minutes after Compass Direct News arrived on Saturday, January 7.
A Christian, Jerry Johnson, was shot in the legs during the attack in Gombe (Compass Direct News)
His death brought the death toll to nine and the number of injured after the attack to 19. Ugboeze's son Gideon was also killed and his 12-year-old daughter Victoria Silas Ugboeze was wounded in both breasts. So far, she has survived, as has her brother Daniel, who was also shot. Ugboeze's widow was overwhelmed with grief at the hospital and was only able to say: "God, where are you? This burden is too heavy for me to bear".
On January 3, Boko Haram published an ultimatum in a newspaper threatening violence if Christians did not leave predominantly Muslim northern Nigeria within three days. Since then, the group has claimed responsibility for the killing of at least 44 people in four states. In Adamawa on the evening of Friday, January 6, 11 people were killed and many others injured at the Apostolic Church in the Nasarawa area of Yola, the state capital. Earlier that day, 12 people were reportedly killed when gunmen, apparently from Boko Haram, fired on a group of Christian traders who were praying together before opening their shops in Mubi, Adamawa. The gunmen also fired at another group of Christians who had gathered at the town hall to arrange the transportation of their relatives who had been killed the day before. This brought the death toll in Mubi to 21.