Untold story of how Boko Haram overrun Nigerian soldiers, massacre hundreds in Borno Story continues..... “They were using anti-aircraft guns while we were using AK47 rifles and some RPGs. They came in droves driving about 20 pickup trucks accompanied by two light armored tankers, all wearing our military colours – desert-camo . We had to retreat to our base to reinforce after running out of arms. But they followed us down there, surrounded our base and began to to shell our building. We couldn’t stand the heat of their superior fire power. We had to retreat into the village after they killed two of our soldiers and three policemen. They left with an armoured tanker and four military patrol trucks,” the soldier said. At the palace of the district head of Benisheik, where vehicles were taken away and one burnt, a staff, Abacha Wakil, narrated to journalists how the gunmen attacked and beheaded people in the village. “The Boko Haram gunmen invaded the town at about 7:45 p.m., after attacking the military base at the outskirts of the town. The soldier ran to us here at the palace of the District Head and warned us to run for our dear lives. They said they had ran out of ammunition and the terrorists are carrying sophisticated arms. “No sooner had the soldiers warned us than the Boko Haram gunmen arrived in droves; all dressed in military uniforms and carrying guns. They came in about 30 vehicles. We had to run for our lives. I took refuge inside the millet plantation near the District Head’s palace. The gunmen spread out and began to shoot and set houses ablaze. They did not leave until about 3:30 am. We all spent the night inside the bush. In the morning, we found that they had beheaded 14 persons, mostly those in the Civilian-JTF, and left with at least 21 vehicles and a Tata truck filled with food items looted from the shops they also set ablaze.” Mr. Wakil said most of the young men killed were beheaded. “Their bodies were completely separated from their bodies. The death could have been more if the soldiers had not run down to warn us in good time that we should run for dear lives.” Headless corpses Environmental health workers, who continued to pick corpses even as late as Friday, said they could not venture into the bushes to search for dead bodies. “We only pick those not far away from the road sides. We understand most of them died while running away from bullets while others were found without their heads. Even if we later found the heads we often don’t know which head belonged to whom. “We believe there could be more corpses ahead in the bush because others could have ran further before they died. But after today, Thursday, their bodies cannot be picked because even the ones we had picked now have decompsed already,” said the Environmental official who declined mentioning his name for official reasons. Some of the corpses that were conveyed to Maiduguri could not be identified because they either had their heads cut off or their faces shattered by bullets. It was an emotional sight when the daughter of a woman, who had given up searching for the body of their father, suddenly pointed at a swollen decapitated body shouting, “Mummy, this is daddy’s shoe, this is daddy,” And when the mother searched the pockets of the headless corpse, they found her husband’s ID card. The woman and her daughter caused everyone gathered to shed tears when the daughter tearfully asked, “Daddy where is your head?” Hundreds of residents have since fled Benisheik in fear of another possible attack. “If they could walk over soldiers and send them running for their lives, who are we to remain here?” Bala Sanusi, a local butcher said. Promises and compensation Borno State governor, Kashim Shettima, who visited the village on Thursday, pleaded for residents to remain in their homes and not to flee. He said more security would be provided to guard the community. He approved the sum of N50 million for the reconstruction of the damaged towns, while the sum of N250,000 would be given as compensation to the family of the 14 people slain in the village. The Brigade Commander of Borno State, Muhammed Yusuf, explained to the few confused villagers that the army did not abandon them, but only left to get more arms after running out of the ones they had. There are lots of concerns by embattled residents of Borno State who see the Federal Government as playing lip service to the issue of insecurity. Many had wondered why the almighty Nigeria Army still found it so difficult dealing with Boko Haram once and for all. Many are of the view that the military hierarchy, although losing personnel and equipment, are making huge pocket-lining gains out of the monies the Federal Government is pumping into the state towards tackling the violence and insecurity. @TAA
Posted on: Sat, 21 Sep 2013 17:50:23 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015