Bama, Gworza : Residents Flee as Boko Haram Threatens Fresh Attacks

Boko Haram group

John Shiklam

Boko Haram insurgents recently dislodged from their camps in the Sambisa Game Reserve in  Borno State by the military Joint Task Force (JTF) have regrouped to unleash more terror on the residents of the area.

The regrouped insurgents were said to have sacked Bama and Gwoza towns completely over the weekend, leaving thousands of residents fleeing their homes for safety.

Some of the residents fleeing the fresh attacks arrived Maiduguri, the state capital, yesterday through Dikwa via Muna road . Narrating their ordeal, they said they had to pay  N7,000 each to be transported to Maiduguri instead of the normal N300   fare, since the Maiduguri- Bama-Gwoza   road has been rendered impassable  because  it  has been  blocked by the JTF since the beginning of the emergency rule.

They also disclosed that  the insurgents had been  moving from house to house, issuing threat letters that all civil servants and Christians must leave Bama before seven days, or risk their lives.

The last bloody attack carried out by Boko Haram   in Bama  left over 40 policemen, 13 prison warders, three soldiers, 10 Boko Haram suspects and several civilians dead while   Police Barracks and Mobile Police formations, including the offices of the Area Commander and the Police Divisional Officer were completely razed.

Meanwhile,  the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in the 19  northern states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has described statements credited to President Goodluck Jonathan to the effect that Muslims were the major victims of the Boko Haram  insurgency in the North as unfortunate and a veiled attempt to distort the facts.

President Jonathan was said to have been quoted in a newspaper (not THISDAY) that the Boko Haram Islamic sect has killed more Muslims than Christians in the North. But the spokesman of CAN in the 19  northern states, Mr. Sunday Oibe,  in a statement yesterday in Kaduna,  said if  it is true that the President actually made such  assertion,  then it is  misleading  and unacceptable.

According to him, the purported statement by the President is highly disappointing considering the fact that Christians, their churches and businesses have been the major targets of the Boko Haram terror group.

The statement reads in part: “Our attention has been drawn to a purported claim by President Goodluck Jonathan that the Boko Haram insurgents in the north killed more Muslims than Christians and that it is not a religious issue.”