Featured, Security
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Hopes of many Nigerians who had expected an immediate cessation of hostility following a ceasefire agreement with Boko Haram are now disappointed that the sect is still attacking and abducting girls in North-Eastern part of the country
| By Olu Ojewale | Nov. 3, 2014 @ 01:00 GMT |
WHEN the federal government announced a ceasefire agreement with Boko Haram, an Islamic fundamentalists group waging war against the country On Friday, October 17, hopes were high that the insurgents would soon lay down their arms and release from captivity more than 200 Chibok girls they abducted April 14, this year. Sources said that the insurgents had agreed to release the abducted girls, already scattered in many parts of West African countries.
President Idriss Deby of Chad has been facilitating negotiations with the sect and brokered the ceasefire agreement. It was learnt that Boko Haram agreed that 70 of the girls would be released first, while others will follow in phases. But that has not happened. Instead, the initial high hopes appear to be turning into despair as vicious attacks and abduction of more women and girls have continued in some parts of the North-East of the country.
For instance, five people were killed and 12 other persons were injured when a bomb blast rippled through motor-park in Azare, a commercial city of Bauchi State on Wednesday, October 22. Witnesses said a man suspected to be a Boko Haram insurgent had left a bag at the park in the night, which exploded shortly after he had left the scene. The blast has no doubt, shattered the relative peace enjoyed in the state for some months now. Azare, which is about four-hour drive from Bauchi, is the commercial nerve centre of the state capital.
Earlier in the week, it was Adamawa State that came under the barrage of attacks by the insurgents during which 60 women were abducted from Waga Mangoro and Garta villages, in the state. Forty of the women were also said to have been abducted in Waga Mangoro and the other 20 were forcefully taken away from Grata. Some of the residents, who fled from the area, disclosed to journalists in Yola, capital of Admawa State, that scores of insurgents rode on motorcycles and vans to invade their towns. While lamenting the capture of the two towns, the fleeing residents said they were able to sneak out of the captured towns on Tuesday, October 22, but that their villages were ravaged on Saturday through to Tuesday without assistance from the military.
Tizhe Kwada, one of those who fled the area, told journalists that the area had been under the control of the insurgents for about two months now. He said that though Garta, one of the attacked towns, had been under the control of the insurgents for sometimes now, but that did not stop them from overrunning it and carting away the young women.
According to Kwada, the insurgents cordoned off the entire town and went from one house to another in Garta in search of young women who they took in their vans to an unknown destination. “The insurgents are still in the area. And they have slaughtered many men in Garta and abducted many young women. We also heard from residents of Wagga that they killed two men and took 40 women away from there,” he said.
Emmanuel Kwache, a community leader from Michika, a neighbouring town to the two attacked towns, while confirming the incident to journalists in Yola, on Wednesday, October 22, said: “I got the information from villagers in the area that the rampage was still in progress.”
But when he was contacted, James Watharda, chairman of Madagali Local Government Area, said he could not speak much on the incident because he had been in Yola since the insurgents took over the area.
In another incident, suspected members of Boko Haram attacked Pelachiroma village in Hawul Local Government Area of Borno State, where they killed three persons and set ablaze several houses, including churches, on Monday, October 20.
Ignatius Musa, a resident of the area, said the insurgents stormed the village around noon and went berserk destroying everything on site and that “churches were not spared”. Pelachiroma is a few kilometres from Azur forest where eight people were killed on Friday, October 15, by the insurgents. Andrew Malgwi, caretaker chairman of Hawul, who confirmed the attack, said the insurgents also destroyed many houses during the siege.
The terror sect also laid ambush on a Borno highway, killing a soldier of the Nigerian Army on Wednesday, October 22. Though details of the ambush were sketchy at press time, a security sources said that the slain soldier was among the Nigerian troops who were travelling from Maiduguri to Damboa where 25 insurgents were killed on Sunday.
The source, who could not confirm if there were casualties on the part of the insurgents, said the troops were travelling along the dangerous Maiduguri-Biu highway before the ambush. He said the insurgents could have laid in ambush for the troops in a reprisal after their members were killed on Sunday. The source said the insurgents laid ambush at a spot not far from Damboa and on sighting the troops opened fire on them.
On Friday, October 17, Alex Badeh, chief of defence staff, declared a ceasefire with the sect over what Hassan Tukur, principal secretary to President Goodluck Jonathan, had said was a result of progress in talks brokered by President Derby. Since then, there have been reports of Boko Haram attacks and abductions, giving credence to speculation that the government is perhaps negotiation with a wrong faction of the terrorist group.
But Mike Omeri, director general of the Nigerian Orientation Agency, NOA, assured Nigerians that government was still in dialogue with the sect and would do everything in its power to ensure the return of the Chibok girls and permanent ceasefire.
Some Nigerians have argued that since there had been no rebuttal from any other Boko Haram group about the current ceasefire agreement, those still attacking Nigerians must have belonged to a minor splinter faction of the sect.
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