We are under siege, says Muhammed Ndume.
At least 200 villagers may have died in Borno State after gunmen
believed to be members of the extremist Boko Haram sect, but dressed in
military uniforms attacked villages in Gwoza Local Government Area of
Borno State, government officials and eyewitnesses have said.
PREMIUM TIMES gathered from reliable sources that the villages of
Attagara, Agapalawa and Aganjara, all in Gwoza Local Government Area,
were on Monday attacked by gunmen who pretended to be soldiers.
Commenting on the attack, the senator representing the area, Muhammed
Ndume, said his constituents were under the siege of the Boko Haram
insurgent group.
The residents of these communities had suffered several attacks
including the shooting of nine worshippers in a church in Attagara
Village during a church service last Sunday. The killing sparked off
reprisal from emboldened villagers who chased the attackers and got
killed four of them while three others were arrested....
On Monday, while the villagers were mourning the loss of those who
died on Sunday, information dribbled around the neighbourhood that the
insurgents might attack again.
The villagers said they informed the military personnel in Gwoza town
but were not taken seriously, even though the soldiers promised to
follow up on the report.
“When the attackers came, most residents of the community actually
thought they were military personnel. It didn’t occur to them they are
Boko Haram. Over 200 corpses are laying in the villages now yet to be
buried,” said one Ngalamuda Ibrahim, a resident of Gwoza.
Another resident of Attagara whose four younger brothers were killed
during the Monday carnage said “they came in military Hilux; and we all
thought they were the soldiers that we earlier reported that the
insurgents might attack us.”
“When they came in over 10 Hilux vehicles, we all felt relieved that
at last the military had arrived, so we went to them and they told us
that ‘we are soldiers and we are here to protect you all.’
“They then urged all of us to converge at a particular spot at the
centre of the village; we all complied; but when they saw that a
sizeable number of us had converged, they began to shout
‘Allahu-Akbar,
Allahu-Akbar’ on top of their voices, then they began to fire at the
people continuously for a very long time until all that gathered were
all dead”, said the source who is a community leader but would not say
his name for fear of his personal safety.
“I lost four of my blood brothers in the massacre”, the source added.
“I was lucky to escape because I was not very close by when the gunmen
started shooting at our people, I was going round to inform people that
the soldiers had come and they wanted to address us; I managed to escape
through villages in Adamawa State and later made it to Maiduguri.”
Mr. Ndume, who represents that part of Borno State in the senate,
confirmed the incident even though he did not mention the casualty
figure.
“We are under siege in Gwoza”, said Mr. Ndume, who is also a native
of Gwoza local government.
“Over six wards of Gwoza local government
have been taken over by insurgents, who also mount their flags in those
areas.
“We had a meeting with the governor and the GOC (General Officer
Commanding of the Nigeria Army 7 Division); and the GOC assured us that
troops would be sent there immediately to go rescue the situation; the
Borno state governor gave the military all the needed logistics at his
disposal to assist them go rescue the villagers, especially where the
insurgents were said to have hoisted flags.
“It is sad that we have to wait till now that people are being killed
for government to take action. We know that for long, the road to Gwoza
from Maiduguri had been a no-go area even for the soldiers.
“It is a known fact that soldiers of the Nigerian army have been
overstretched in both human and material capacity; the federal
government has to rise to the occasion to give these soldiers the needed
support to work. Two major federal government bridges leading to Gwoza
have been bombed and no one seemed concerned about this,” he said.
PREMIUM TIMES learnt that most of the survivors of the attacks,
especially women and children, fled to the neighbouring Cameroon
territories as most villages around Gwoza town had either been attacked
or sacked by the Boko Haram insurgents.
The attacks on Borno communities have continued despite an emergency rule in place in the state.
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