The senator representing Borno Central at the National Assembly, Ahmed Zannah, has challenged both the Borno State Government and military authorities to take the media to Bama to verify their claims that the state’s second largest town had not been captured by the Boko Haram insurgents.The senator in a telephone chat yesterday said: “As I am speaking to you, Bama has been captured and the insurgents are on the prowl for any male, killing at will.”
He added: “Everyone is a target as long as you are male. But for now, women and children are being spared.”
Recounting a personal loss, Zannah said he lost two nephews to the insurgents, who according to him, captured Bama on Tuesday.
He said: “They entered my brother’s house in Bama and shot his two sons they met at the residence.”
Zannah, who is an indigene of Bama, 78 kilometres from Maiduguri, said: “Both the military and Borno State Government are lying to Nigerians, and to prove that I am the one misinforming the public, they should take journalists to the town to cross-check the facts.”
Zannah on Tuesday morning granted an interview to the BBC stating that Bama had fallen to the terrorist group.
However, the state government and youth vigilante group swiftly dismissed his claim, stating that Nigerian troops were in control of the town and that his statement was politically motivated.
However, as the uncertainty over the true state of affairs in Bama continued yesterday, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said it had registered 26,391 internally displaced persons (IDPs) as a result of the attack on the town.
Responding to enquiries, the North-east information officer of the agency, Mallam AbdulKadir Ibrahim, said the influx into Maiduguri from Bama and neighbouring villages as a result of the attack on Bama stood at 26,391 at the last count.
Ibrahim said the number was growing by the hour, as there were still people trooping into Maiduguri from Bama and neighbouring villages of Konduga and Kawuri.
He said the agency had started making arrangements to ensure that they are camped in Maiduguri and provided with adequate relief materials.
Also, in reaction to Monday’s renewed attack by Boko Haram on some parts of Borno State, Governor Kashim Shettima yesterday returned to Nigeria, cutting short his official trip to Sudan and the United Kingdom where he had scheduled assessment meetings with school authorities on the over 70 students recently sponsored by the state government to study medicine and petroleum geo-sciences.
A statement by his media aide, Isa Gusau, said the governor “returned and held crucial meetings in Abuja in connection with events in Bama and the rest of the state.
“He also approved the formation and release of funds to a committee set up to coordinate the distribution of relief materials and management of victims”.
The governor, the statement said, was scheduled to return to Maiduguri yesterday despite heightened fears about planned attacks on the state capital by the Boko Haram insurgents “who had never hidden their desperation to hit the city in retaliation for their forceful eviction by soldiers and citizen-volunteers in 2013”.
It added that Shettima returned mainly to provide the needed leadership, be with his people, build public confidence, coordinate relief for victims, and step up co-funding and psychological support for the military.
The governor left Nigeria on Sunday night and was scheduled to meet officials at a university in Sudan where 50 female citizens of the state are undergoing state-sponsored degree programmes in medicine under the state Female Medical Education/Intervention Programme designed to train abroad 300 female doctors in five years.
Shettima was also meant to travel to the UK to meet 20 students undergoing petroleum geo-sciences, in addition to signing agreements for other human capacity development programmes.
He was expected to follow up a meeting with a water systems company required for domestic use and irrigation agriculture in Borno aimed at boosting job creation as a strategy to discourage economic-based recruitment by Boko Haram insurgents, the statement added.
The governor’s spokesman added that the insurgents had attacked several areas in the state, with the most recent being the attempted seizure of Bama town, one of the most populated areas in the state.
“There were initial reports that the insurgents had captured the army base and were in control of Bama, headquarters of the commercial council.
“Security sources however said yesterday that the military was firmly in control of the town following air strikes that destroyed the hardware brought in by insurgents from Gwoza, while also destroying the military hardware at the Bama military base to deny the insurgents' access to weapons there.
“The insurgents had targeted the base to gain access to the arms and ammunition and had planned to add same to their arsenal by launching a massive attack on Maiduguri, the major target of the insurgents,” he said in the statement.
Meanwhile, Boko Haram insurgents were reported to have seized yet another town in North-eastern Nigeria yesterday without a shot being fired.
The terrorists were said to have seized Gulani in Yobe State on Tuesday, allegedly occupying the local council secretariat complex and the lodge.
The takeover of the town was said to have forced some residents to flee for fear of being killed.
Gulani is a border town with Buni/Yadi, which was believed to have been captured by the insurgents last month. It is 164 kilometres west of Damaturu, the state capital.
A resident of Gulani, Bukar Isa, told journalists on the phone yesterday that no resident was killed during Tuesday’s invasion, but the insurgents took over the secretariat complex and lodge by noon, “before telling us that they stormed the town not to kill, but preach and do the work of Allah (God), according to the Quran”.
Gulani and Buni Yadi have been attacked several times in the past by insurgents, resulting in the death of scores of people including security personnel.
Sources in the town revealed that the rampaging terrorists passed the night in Gulani town and called the early morning prayers at the Central Mosque where they preached to some residents that remained in their residences.
They were said to have gone to the ward head’s house and registered their presence, telling him that their coming was just to preach and not to harm anyone.
“The insurgents called the early morning prayers, led the prayers and preached for over an hour before going back to the government lodge where they camped,” said Isa.
Isa complained that there were no security operatives to challenge the Islamist militants who were still occupying the government lodge at the time of filing this report.
Gulani is one of the strongest enclaves of the insurgents in Yobe South Senatorial District.
Some construction firms were forced to leave the area due to several attacks and seizure of explosives from their workers along the 164-kilometre Damaturu-Buni/Yadi-Gulani Road a few months ago.
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