At least nine out of 102 Internally Displaced Person’s (IDPs) allegedly abducted by Boko Haram insurgents,
while fetching firewood in Gamboru+Ngala of Ngala local govt area of Borno state have reportedly found their way back to the camp
A resident of Ngala, Bulama Abor who spoke to our correspondent on phone said ” yes, four people escaped from the captivity of the insurgents on Friday and as I am speaking at least 9 people have returned and we are still expecting more to escape”.
” We hope goverment will intensify efforts to rescue the remaining people in the captivity of the insurgents. Many of our people cannot go to the bush to fetch firewood any more and Ramadan fasting will hopefully commence tomorrow, Monday and our only source of energy is firewood. Government or the military should intensify efforts to liberate our nearby bushes and farmlands”, he added.
It would be recalled that some weeks ago some of IDPs taking refuge in Mafa, Dikwa and Ngala IDP camps threatened to returned back to the bush, due to alleged neglect by the government, a situation that forced Governmor Zulum to address them in Mafa IDP camp where he told them that the food crisis is a global issue and that anybody that wants to go back to bush should do so.
The abduction of the IDPs was strongly condermned by the United Nations, however, the Borno State government dismissed the abduction reports , stressing that they only lost their way back home .
Confirming the return, the Director General of the Borne State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Dr. Barkindo Mohammed the Director General, who spoke to journalists in a phone interview in Maidugurii said he led the state government fact-finding team to Ngala immediately after the reported abduction was reported Friday, March 8, and their findings revealed that they just missed their way back home and that there was no communication from said abductors demanding for ransom.
“We believe they only lost their way back home, not abducted, because if they were abducted, the abductors would have, by now, called for ransom, but nobody has called anybody for any ransom yet”.
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The SEMA DG fruther said “we have been reliably informed that nine out of the ‘missing’ IDPs traced their way back to the camp last Friday, March 8,.Oficials at Ngala have been instructed to mount an intensive and extensive vigilance to inform us about any trickling number returning.”
He also said “you would have observed that the state government restrained all along from quoting any number because we know the IDPs very well because we are the ones managing their affairs; they are economical with the truth.”
“We don’t believe the IDPs in this abduction narrative and the number of those they said were abducted; the IDPs are not trustworthy. There is no trust between them (IDPs) and government and between them and NGOs; there is even no trust among themselves; if it is about food and other essential commodities distribution, or they want to raise public sympathy for themselves. They exaggerate numbers; if it is about anything they don’t want, like immunization, they reduce numbers, so, in the first instance, we don’t even believe in the abduction story, talkless of the numbers quoted.”
