Sophia Michaels
Nine out of the 102 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from Gamboru-Ngala, Borno State, who were reportedly abducted by Boko Haram terrorists while fetching firewood in the bush on Sunday, March 4, have safely returned home.
While media reports confirmed by locals that the young IDPs were abducted by the terrorists, with further confirmation by the UN, which condemned the abduction of over 200 IDPs, the Borno State government dismissed the abduction narrative, arguing that they only lost their way back home from the wilderness.
“In fact, we don’t even believe that they were abducted,” Dr. Barkindo Mohammed Saidu, the Durector-General, Borno SEMA, who led the state government fact-finding team to Ngala immediately after the reported abduction, had told newsmen in Maiduguri, Friday, March 8.
He had argued: “We believe they only lost their way back home, not abducted, because if they were abducted, the abductors would have, by now, called for Ransome; but nobody has called anybody for any Ransome yet.”
As of Sunday, March 10, no authority gave The PUNCH any hint about the abductors quoting any ransom for the release of the abductees whom the Borno government still firmly believes only lost their way back home.
“We have been reliably informed that nine out of the ‘missing’ IDPs traced their way back to the camp last Friday, March 8,” Dr. Saidu revealed to The PUNCH on Sunday, adding, “Officials at Ngala have been instructed to mount an intensive and extensive vigilance to inform us about any trickling number returning.”
The Borno SEMA helmsman maintained, “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.”
Dr. Saidu explained: “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 them among the public, they exaggerate numbers; if it is about anything they don’t want, like immunisation, they reduce numbers.”
He continued, “This is why we don’t even believe the abduction story and the numbers quoted.”
The PUNCH could not immediately reach the 7 Div spokesman, Lt. Col. Ajemusu Jingina, for a military update about the IDPs.
