Ndume Condoles With Victims Of Gwoza Attack, Provides Support

Senator Ali Ndume, a senator representing southern Borno senatorial district at the National Assembly, yesterday paid a condolence visit to families of the six persons who died in an improvised explosive device ( IED ) attack by Boko Haram terrorists between Lakwadisa to Yamtake area of Gwoza local government area last Thursday.

The six persons were among the Gwoza residents who were on their way to their farmlands when the terrorists, numbering about 50 with gun trucks and Hilux vehicles, attacked them. In the process, five of the deceased stepped on the IED, which exploded and killed them instantly, while the terrorists shot the sixth victim at a close range.

One of the survivors, Ahmadu Kwataba, who is a hunter, said the deceased comprised members of the civilian joint taskforce (CJTF), hunters and a repentant terrorist who were collaborating with the troops of the Nigerian military in leading the farming residents to their farmlands on the day of the attack.

Kwataba said the terrorists, who overwhelmed them with the soldiers on the escort due to the sophisticated weapons in their possession, seized over 37 bicycles, five tricycles known in local parlance as “Jega” from the farming residents.

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He said “, It was last Thursday when the residents in their numbers with their tricycles and bicycles were heading to their farmlands, and the soldiers were scanning the route to the farmlands against IEDs that the terrorists attacked us. They collected over 37 bikes and five tricycles (Jega ) from our people.

“We called Senator Ndume and briefed him about the incident, and he urged us to be patient. Thereafter, the Senator gave each of the persons who lost their bicycles N100,000 each and replaced the five tricycles stolen by the terrorists. He gave each of the six widows of the six persons who were killed in the IED explosion a grinding machine and sewing machine, in addition to N100,000 each, to empower them to have lost their breadwinners. “

Also speaking, another survivor, Ahmadu Bello, who is a CJTF member on the escort for the farmers, said they were heading to the farmlands when they noticed that the soldiers were turning back the people and asked some of us without guns to run. It was in that process that five of us stepped on the IED planted by the terrorists, which exploded and killed them, while the other member of the CJTF was shot dead by the terrorists.

He wondered how the terrorists acquired the sophisticated weapons and equipment they used on the attack, which comprised brand new Hilux vehicles, military-branded gun trucks, multipurpose machine guns, as well as the AK47 they wielded during the attack.

Fatima, one of the wives of the deceased, who is heavily pregnant with two children behind, whose husband was a repentant terrorist and among those providing security for the farmers, lamented the devastation the death of her husband has caused her, saying that the vacuum created as a result of the death would not be easy for her to overcome, especially in catering for the children left behind and nurturing her pregnancy.

Meanwhile, Senator Ndume, who visited the six families that lost their loved ones in the attack and consoled their bereaved widows with cash support and empowerment tools, urged residents of Gwoza to be more vigilant while going about their farming activities.

At a stakeholders meeting at the Gwoza local government lodge on Monday, the Senator decried the rising attacks on farmers, especially now that people are harvesting their farm produce, and reiterated his call on the residents to expose the terrorist collaborators and informants in their midst.

In a similar vein, a farmer, Buba Abdullahi, who escaped by the whiskers when the terrorists ambushed some farmers going to their farmlands on Monday, said the terrorists, who are the faction of the Islamic State of West African Province (ISWAP) seized 15 bicycles from residents going to their farmlands in wala, and as well in separate attack, seized seven bicycles from another set of residents going to their farms in Ajige areas of Gwoza town.

Habiba Audu, mother of eight children whose husband was among those involved in the last Thursday attack, said the rising terrorist attacks in the Gwoza local government area have created great fear in the minds of the people towards farming activities.

She said the majority of the populace who are farmers are afraid of going to the farms now, being that many of them have either been killed or abducted while in their farming activities, adding that they are resorting to petty activities to survive pending the elimination of the marauding terrorists from their local government area.

The resurgence of Boko Haram terrorist attacks in several areas of Borno State has posed a fresh threat to the survival of the people in the affected regions. Some local government areas of the State, such as Gwoza, Askira-Uba, Damboa, Chibok and some parts of Biu, have been the latest targets of the terrorists.

In the northern part of the State, local government areas such as Kukawa, Guzamala, some parts of Mobbar and Marte are still grappling with the consequential attacks from the terrorists and the recent attack in Dumba in Kukawa, where over 40 fish and crop farmers were killed is a testament to the worrisome presence of the insurgents as well as their resurgence.