Troops have begun a search for 101 female Internally Displaced Persons abducted on Sunday by suspected Boko Haram insurgents in the Gamboru-Ngala and Dikwa local government areas of Borno State.
This was as our correspondent learned on Wednesday that the insurgents late Tuesday night invaded the newly built resettlement camp for IDPs, setting 30 houses ablaze.
The abduction last Sunday, March 3, was at Jillam and Wurga villages of Gamboru-Ngala LGA while the houses razed down were at Gajibo, Dikwa LGA on Tuesday.
The Borno State Commissioner of Information and Internal Security, Prof. Usman Tar, confirmed the Gajibo incident.
“We have dispatched SEMA officials to the village to assess the situation before we can issue any reliable statement. Please, let’s wait for them to return and issue their report,” Tar told our correspondent on Wednesday.
A civilian JTF official, Bukar Idris, confirmed the abduction of the IDP on Sunday to our correspondent.
“The insurgents abducted about 101 youngsters, comprising 53 girls and 48 boys, who strayed out of the ID camp at Ngala to the outskirts of the two villages, fetching firewood,” Idris said.
“The incident took place last Sunday, and they are yet to be rescued; nobody even knows where they have been taken to,” he lamented.
Reliable sources confirmed to our correspondent that the insurgents stormed Gajibo village around 10:20 am on Tuesday, March 5, shooting sporadically and setting ablaze about 30 newly constructed houses for the resettlement of IDPs.
Gajibo, about 110km from Maiduguri, was a stronghold of the insurgents at the peak of the terror.
It was completely destroyed by the terrorists themselves. The entire village is under reconstruction by the state government in an effort to resettle some of the over 60,000 IDPs now over-populating Dikwa, the headquarters of the LGA.
“When the terrorists stormed Gajibo, we were from Ngala en route to Maiduguri,” an eyewitness, Musa Module, told our correspondent, saying, “The troops escorting our convoy asked us to wait at Logumani village (neighbouring Gamboru-Ngala LGA) for about three hours, and it was not until 2 pm that we proceeded on our journey.”
“When we reached Gajibo, I counted more than 25 newly constructed houses at Gajibo village completely razed down,” he said.
Another eyewitness, a resident of Dikwa town, Yerima Kyari, also confirmed the incident to our correspondent on the phone, alleging, “The terrorists have also planted IEDs in the ongoing construction site to frustrate the reconstruction of the village.”
The 7 Division Nigerian Army spokesman, Lt. Col. Ajemusu Jingina, confirmed the Ngala abduction but said he had still not received a report reliable enough for reportage on the Gajibo houses.
“Times without number, we have warned the IDPs never to go out of the sight of security agents but they would never heed,” Jingina told our correspondent angrily.
“Last Sunday, in the typical obstinacy of IDPs, these guys strayed out to as far as 25 kilometres from Ngala just to collect firewood; they were already in danger of any attack by the terrorists.
“Troops have already been dispersed to far into the wilderness in search and rescue operations; the air component of the troops are also hovering around the wilderness for the search and rescue, “ he assured.
He would not talk about the Gajibo houses burnt down by the suspected insurgents until he received reliable information about it, he said.
