Nine, out of the 102 female internally displaced persons (IDPs) kidnapped last Sunday by Boko Haram terrorists in Ngala, the headquarters of Gamboru Ngala Local Government Area of Borno State have returned to their camp.
The Director General of the Borno State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Dr. Barkindo Mohammed Saidu, on Sunday, confirmed the return of the IDPs even as he restated that they were not abducted.
While media reports confirmed by locals that the female IDPs were abducted by Boko Haram, with further confirmation by the UN, which condemned the abduction of over 200 IDPs, the Borno State government dismissed the abduction, arguing that they only lost their way back home from the wilderness.
“In fact, we don’t even believe that they were abducted,” the Borno SEMA Director General 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 ransom but nobody has called anybody for any ransom yet.”
However, confirming the return to camp of the nine IDPs on Sunday, Dr Saidu said its agency was reliably informed that nine out of the ‘missing’ IDPs traced their way back to the camp last Friday, March 8.
He added that officials at Ngala have been instructed to mount an intensive and extensive vigilance to inform SEMA about “any trickling number returning.”
“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.
“We don’t believe the IDPs in this abduction narrative and the number of those they said were abducted; the IDPs are not trustworthy,” the SEMA boss stated.
He further disclosed that there is no trust between the IDPs and government, and between them and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
Dr Saidu further claimed that there is even no trust among the IDPs themselves, saying, they are in the habit of exaggerating figures to attract public sympathy on issues relating to distribution of food and other essential commodities, but reducing figure on matters they don’t like such as immunization.
“This is why we don’t even believe the abduction story and the numbers quoted,” Dr. Saidu said.
