We in the south west and eastern Nigeria don’t know how lucky or rather blessed we are, reading the different ordeal of the MUBI Town victims who managed to escape the Boko Haram Invasion gives me goose pimples because I cant even imagine my love ones in that traumatizing situation.
I totally lost faith and hope for peace in the northern
Nigeria after watching and reading the transcript of the Boko Haram Leader over
the weekend, I refused to report it cos it was too disturbing for my liking.
Boko Haram are becoming has cruel as ISIS. Nigeria need help and fast.
Below are the stories of those who witness the invasion first hand in
Mubi, Adamawa state has reported by Vanguard news paper after the cut
FIVE days after Boko Haram terrorists seized Mubi, the
second largest town in Adamawa, the insurgents are still holding on to the town
even as about 3,000 residents who managed to escape have joined other
internally displaced persons at an NYSC camp in Yola.
Some of the survivors of the invasion have also recounted
their ordeals.Most of them who ran for safety were students of the Federal
Polytechnic, Mubi. Explaining her ordeal to Vanguard in Yola, weekend, one of
the students, Gift Ugo, a Mass Communications undergraduate of the Polytechnic
from Abia State who said she spent four days in the bush where she hid from the
prowling eyes of the insurgents said it was a miracle that she escaped alive.
She said: “I am based in Kaduna but schooling in Federal
Polytechnic, Mubi, Adamawa. I am studying Mass Communication. Actually, the
incident happened on Wednesday morning although we never knew it would be that
serious as the jets were dropping bombs. We had thought it was the usual
incident that would just pass by but before we realized it, sounds of gunshots
were everywhere. About 150 students ran to Cameroon border and were
accommodated by the Cameroonian soldiers but we decided to stay back in the
hostel to see how safe it would be until they called us that an HND 1
Accounting student had been killed.
We were told that the crisis spread into
the school premises as the university had been burnt down while the next target
would be the Polytechnic.“We had to run for our lives. We tried to get to where
we could get a vehicle because the roads had been taken over by the insurgents.
We saw them with our eyes. They have blocked all the access roads leading to
the town, so nobody could leave or enter the town. The moment you come into the
town, you are sure you are going to die and if you were inside the city, you
had to run for your life because nowhere is safe inside Mubi right now.
We have
not been eating anything. We were just taking water with thorns piecing through
our legs. Walking in the bush for four days has not been easy for us.”
Another
student, Queen Samuel, an indigene of Benue State, studying Purchasing and
Supply, also shared her experience. She said, “we have been running, we have
lost almost everything. We trekked all the way from Mubi to Hong and got a cab
that took us here. The situation in Mubi was very, very terrible. Immediately
we left, we learned that the insurgents had burnt our hostel. There were gun
shots and bomb blasts everywhere. We saw the Boko Haram people from the bush
where we were hiding.
Two of them were on a motor bike and some were riding in
Keke Napep (tricycle) armed with guns, so we hid. It was by the grace of God
that they didn’t see us. We spent three days in the bush. There was no security
there at all in the town.Debora Fandum and Samuel Kasinda, both from Mubi whom
Vanguard met at Damare Junction, a suburb of Yola said that though they
escaped, they were still confused over where to go or what next to do.
Meanwhile,
the number of Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, who were mainly victims of
Boko Haram insurgency in Yola, Adamawa State, has hit 7662, Vanguard can
authoritatively report. The figure, however, excludes 2633 new persons that
were admitted into the permanent orientation camp of the National Youth Service
Corps, NYSC, at Damare, Yola, which is being used as camp for the IDPs.Most of
the IDPs came from Mubi, which was invaded by the insurgents last Wednesday.
Michika in Adamawa State, Yobe and Borno states, largely known to be the
hotbeds of the terrorists. Consequently, the sudden increase in the number of
people has thrown up many challenges for the camp officials. For instance, the
camp is now contending with insufficient mattresses, mats and toilets, just as
the security around the camp is giving the camp officials some
concern.Investigations revealed that most of IDPs have taken to open defecation
which officials said was detrimental to the health of the people.
Details of
the number indicated that 3472 were males, while 4190 were females. Children
below the ages of five constituted 782 of the number. Similarly, pregnant women
were 76, while the number of children between the ages of 0-1 year was put at
175. The camp cooked an average of 12 bags of rice and beans on daily basis to
feed the inmates.Confirming the number of the IDPs to Vanguard, the Commandant
of the Camp, Mr. Ibrahim Hamidu, who was incidentally a Red Cross official from
Gere Local Government of the State, said the camp was fully occupied.
By Levinus Nwabughiogu
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