The Adamawa state government in North-east Nigeria has said it would procure arms for 150 more local vigilantes to help fight insurgency in areas recaptured from Boko Haram terrorists.

The state’s commissioner of Information and Strategy, Ahmad Sajoh, told PREMIUM TIMES in a telephone that the measure was in response to the recent suicide bomb attacks in Madagali local government area of the state in which at least 50 persons were killed and 177 others injured, including minors.

The state government had already mobilized 223 local vigilantes to help the security agencies tackle Boko Haram remnants in the troubled northern part of the state.

Mr. Sajoh said the government would assist the new batch of 150 “with stipends and ammunition for their locally-made dane guns.

“The vigilantes, who include hunters, have been assisting in the fight against Boko Haram, and these men will be drawn from Madagali, the town hit by bomb blast on Friday,’’ he explained.

“They know the terrain like their fingertips, and are capable of outmaneuvering the terrorists,’’ said the commissioner.

In recent times, attempts by suicide bombers to attack Shuwa, Michika and Rumirgo Market in Askira Uba local government area of Borno State were reported to have been thwarted by vigilante group members.

“They wield machetes, locally made guns and anything they could use to terrify the enemies”, said Adamu Kamal, the member representing Michika and Madagali Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives.

‘’And since their inception, they have had some success fending off Boko Haram in our areas,’’ Mr. Kamale told PREMIUM TIMES.