How Boko Haram seized our girls, gave us N5,000 —Parents As Lagos court jails sect’s financier for 10 years

             

Survivors of the Boko Haram attack on the town of Mubi  have continued to flee, even as a family man, who fled to Kano, has told the British Broadcasting Corporation (BB)C Hausa in an interview that parents were forced to collect N5,000 and surrender their daughters to the insurgents.

Similarly, a woman, who also fled to Kano, said some air planes were shot down during the encounter,while some soldiers, who were either dead or injured, were seen on the bush paths they took as escape routes.

In Nafada town of Gombe State, the insurgents caused havoc, killed about 25 security agents and a renowned Islamic cleric, Sheik Adam Nasara, together with six of his students.

The BBC Hausa report said the town of Ashaka was also attacked.

A staff of the Ashaka Cement company said that the insurgents broke into the company and stole about eight trucks, forced their way into the store and took dynamites, which the company use to break rocks in cement production.

The company worker said there were women among the fighters, but they did not touch civilians, though the security agents were yet to confirm the development.

Also, seven young men, all supporters of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at Sabon Kasuwa village of Hawul Local Government Area of Borno State were reportedly killed along Gombe road, while traveling to Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, to meet with some politicians in the state.

According to reports, they left Sabon Kasuwa at about 9.00 a.m. and were said to be caught up in a crossfire at Gombe, when the insurgents who attacked Nafada and took over Ashaka cement factory in Gombe were in operation.

A resident of Sabon Gari, Mallam Audu Chara, told the Nigerian Tribune on Wednesday that the attack of Gombe had now cut off the people of Biu and Hawul in Borno State from their families in Maiduguri, since Gombe is the only route being used since Boko Haram had destroyed the bridge at Mandafuma.

Meanwhile, the state government had directed that schools be shut, while buses were deployed to evacuate the students, especially the girls, so as to prevent a repeat of the Chibok incident.

The News Agency of Nigeria reported that parents who took their children to school on Wednesday were told to take them back, as the schools had been closed on the orders of the government.

Mrs Edith Williams, Headmistress, Bethany International College, Gombe, told NAN that she received a circular on Tuesday evening that all schools should be shut for security reasons.

Some parents who spoke to NAN commended the state government for the action, saying it was a necessary action to safeguard the students.

In Mubi, Adamawa State, soldiers fled for allegedly not been able to face the superior fire power of the insurgents.

One of the soldiers told the BBC Hausa that four days ago, while they were between Bazza and Michika in Adamawa State,they were informed to be ready to attack Boko Haram.

“They said they are going to fix the bridge but we told them not to do that, because that was why the fighters cannot enter Mubi. But they fixed the bridge and we were not provided with weapons. After fixing the bridge, they send us to fight, about 150 of us, without arms.

“They did not give us the required arms, we needed about 7 APCs, RPC and artillery bombs to enable us to confront and push them back to where they came from. But wallahi, we had only AK-47 and two magazine, which was inadequate.

“Our adversaries came with anti-aircraft, deployed 4 APCs with other sophisticated weapons. We fought them for about 30 minutes, facing each other from opposite sides. When they realised we were not many, they used that bridge to crush us completely and moved directly to Mubi,” he said.

The soldier, however, said the Nigerian troops were brave and could confront enemies on the battlefront.

Meanwhile, the Executive Secretary of Yobe Hospitals Management Board, Dr Mamman Mohammed, has confirmed that 119 casualties were reported, with 30 deaths in the Monday bomb attack in Potiskum, Yobe State.

Mohammed told Governor Ibrahim Gaidam of Yobe State, who paid a visit to the victims at the Potiskum General Hospital, that some of the victims with severe injuries had been referred to tertiary health institutions in Azare and Nguru.

Gaidam directed that free treatment be given to the victims and condoled with the Shiite group on the death of their members.

The governor also visited some of the victims currently receiving treatment at the general hospital, where he directed the hospital to do everything necessary to ensure the they get the best of treatment, to be paid for by the government.

In another development, a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has sentenced a major financier of Boko Haram to 10 years in prison.

The convict was said to have been the brain behind the international bond that the sect recently established with some foreign terrorist organisations.

The Boko Haram financier was among four suspects – Adamu Mohammed, Mohammed Mustapha, Bura Husseni and Mohammed Ibrahim – secretly tried before Justice Saliu Saidu by the Department of State Security (DSS).

The jailed suspect was not officially named but he is believed to be the third accused person(Bura Husseni).

Efforts by journalists to get details of the allegations against the suspects and other details about the conviction were unsuccessful, as no one was willing to divulge the information.

But it was gathered that one of the suspects was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in jail for sponsoring the sect, while Justice Saidu released the three others.

The suspects were said to have been prosecuted by Mr P. Okerinmodu on behalf of the government.

When the suspects were brought in to the courtroom under heavy security, all other people in court were ordered out, except the lawyers, court registrars and the judge.

Last month, Justice Ibrahim Buba, also of the Federal High Court in Lagos, sentenced three Boko Haram members to 25 years each in prison, after finding them guilty of belonging to the outlawed fundamentalist group.