A gale of palpable apprehension suddenly swept through the city, forcing some business owners to close shop and head for their homes. Parents quickly collected their wards from the schools and raced to the confines of their homes. Many others resolved to relocate far away from town until the problem was effectively curtailed.

In the last days of last month, Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, wore a cloak of fear. It wasn’t without cause. The Boko Haram insurgency, which the people believed had been completely tackled and conquered, was about resurfacing. And not many people saw the threat as a mere joke.

In an interview with a foreign radio, deputy leader of the Boko Haram sect, Abubakar Shekau who had been purportedly killed by Nigerian security forces alongside other Boko Haram fighters in an all-out war against the group in July last year, was threatening fire and brimstone. Claiming to be alive and well, Shekau said he had taken command of the Boko Haram group since his principal, Mohammed Yusuf, was killed last year. He said his group would continue to wage war against Western interests within and outside Nigeria until victory was won.
But that wasn’t the only reason. The rumour mill was also agog, spinning various tales about another Boko Haram insurgency.

In the last few weeks, residents of Bauchi, Yobe, Borno and a few other states in that part of the country have been genuinely worried that the Boko Haram violence might devastate their lives once again. The air was thick with the rumour that remnants of the Boko Haram sect have since regrouped and are planning a massive campaign to commemorate the anniversary of the insurgency which hit those states like tsunami between July 26 and 31, last year.

“We are living in fear,” Rev Jerry Audu of the Church of Christ in Nigeria (COCIN), Maiduguri admitted to the reporter. “Of course, there are fresh fears that it might happen again. Just recently, the deputy to Yusuf resurfaced on BBC and said they will come back on a revenge mission. Anybody who saw what happened will definitely not want a repeat. So people live in fear now.”

On the trail of blood
From Bauchi through Yobe to Borno States, as this reporter toured the various places devastated by the Boko Haram mayhem, chatting with residents, journalists, victims, widows, succour providers, security officers and others affected by the events of those days of dread, distress and death, you couldn’t miss the apprehension on the various faces. Not too many people were comfortable with you so long as the subject matter was Boko Haram. Many were the government officials who developed cold feet and tactically refrained from making comments when they discovered that all you wanted to talk about was Boko Haram.

In Bauchi, attempts by the reporter to talk to government officials were stylishly, even diplomatically, rebuffed by such officials. Before embarking on the journey, Director of Press to Governor Isa Yuguda, Alhaji Maigari Khana, had been informed of the reporter’s mission. And on getting to his office at the Government House, Khana, in a very pleasant manner, informed the reporter that being a civil servant, he would not be able to comment on Boko Haram. He directed the reporter to the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Media, Mallam Sanusi Muhammad. “You know, they are the politicians,” he said playfully. “I am a civil servant.”

Well, to the SSA the reporter went. He too was as friendly as Maigari. He would have been willing to talk, he noted, if the issue didn’t have to do with security. “But in this case, the SA Security will be the right person to talk to you. I will take you to his office,” he said.

So to the latter’s office we headed. On the way, Mohammed sighted a dark complexioned gentleman he identified as the governor’s Chief Security Officer. “Come, let’s talk to the CSO about the matter. Maybe he can even talk to you.” It sounded good.

The CSO was also very friendly. After listening to the reporter’s mission from the SSA, the CSO asserted that it was no big deal. What he would do, he said, would be to discuss with the SA Security. Together, they would brief the SSA media who would in turn brief the reporter. The reporter was asked to return by four p.m that Friday afternoon.

By four, the reporter called the SSA, but he said he was yet to be briefed. An hour later when he was called again, he also said he had not been briefed. Thrice he was called and thrice he said he was waiting to be briefed. When the reporter called him again at about 8pm that night, Mohammed said he had now been briefed and, since it was getting late, would meet the reporter in the latter’s hotel later that night. He never fulfilled the pledge.
The Police Public Relations Officer in Bauchi, Mohammed Barau is an amiable fellow. When he was asked some questions about the Boko Haram incident, he declined. “The person you should see is the Commissioner of Police,” he said. The reporter said he had no problems with that.

“So, you will write a letter to the CP telling him why you want to interview him,” Barau said.
Informed that you came all the way from Lagos, and that letter writing wasn’t part of your brief, Barau calmed down. He now gave the reporter another suggestion.
“The CP will be addressing reporters soon. You may join them. Then after the event, meet the CP and tell him your mission.” The reporter agreed and even followed his suggestion.

Eventually, the CP, Alhaji Danlami Yar’Adua, directed his deputy, Alhaji Mohammed Indabawa to talk to the reporter. According to him, he wasn’t the CP in Bauchi at the time of the incident, informing that Indabawa was the man in charge at the time. A similar situation took place in Borno.

After several attempts to talk to the police authorities had been thwarted at the police headquarters in Borno, a police officer offered some helpful advice to the reporter and Timothy Ola, The Sun correspondent in Maiduguri. He asserted that the only person permitted to talk about Boko Haram was the Force PRO in Abuja, and counselled the journalists to get to Louis Edet House. And that was where the reporter eventually went.

But the attitude of the authorities wasn’t totally unexpected. Earlier, in Bauchi, a senior civil servant had confided in the reporter that it would take a miracle for government officials to address the issue. “There seems to be an unwritten law that prevents people from talking about the incident,” he had said. “I won’t be surprised if at the end of the day, you are not able to talk to as many government officials as you would have loved to.”
‘Govt not helping matters’

A middle-aged Islamic teacher in Bauchi who wouldn’t want his name in print insisted that the last might not have been heard of the Boko Haram insurgency. He urged Nigerians to hold the governments of those states devastated by Boko Haram responsible if the situation ever rears its head again.

He explained further: “In the North, our religion, Islam, is the number one thing. People may not send their children to the conventional school, but you can be sure that the kids will attend Quranic schools. So, in a typical village, you may have one conventional primary school and then have up to 20 small Quranic learning centres. Whatever is taught them at the Quranic school is accepted as a message from God. Unfortunately, government treats these schools as if they don’t exist. Why is it so difficult for government to absorb these schools and their teachers into the academic system and begin to pay them salaries like the teachers in the conventional schools?

“Another reason why Boko Haram may occur again is that, instead of confronting and dealing with this problem, the government is behaving as if it doesn’t exist. That is not the way to go about it. Government has sort of decreed that these people’s voices must not be heard. That is a major mistake. Whether you like it or not, these Boko Haram people do exist. And they are Nigerians too. What the government should do is to find a way of engaging them. Find out from where they got those bizarre ideas of theirs. Why do they say Western education is sin? Listen to their complaints. Engage a sociologist to deal with them. Then try and make them see reasons why their thinking is warped and stupid. Then, gradually, bring them back into a state of sanity. But instead of that, you are killing them, putting them in jail and so on. But these people have kids. When those kids grow up, they will ask questions about their dads. And they will be told what happened to them. If they now decide to avenge their fathers’ killings, how do you stop them from starting another Boko Haram?”

‘Yes, it can happen again’
Among many of the victims of Boko Haram, the fear is real that the bullets and bombs may devastate Bauchi and Maiduguri again, unless the government takes strong measures to prevent the incident.
Pastor Jerry Audu, a minister with the Church of Christ in Nigeria (COCIN) in Maiduguri, is unequivocal in his conviction that Boko Haram might occur again.

“Of course, there are fresh fears that it might happen again,” the man of God informs this reporter. “Our people now live in fear because of uncertainty. People live in danger. Just recently, the deputy to Yusuf resurfaced on BBC and said they will come back on a revenge mission. Anybody who saw what happened will definitely not want a repeat. So people live in fear now.”

Indeed, besides the interview reportedly granted a foreign radio by Abubakar Shekau, the ‘dead’ deputy to Mohammed Yusuf, a video clip also materialized in the Borno State capital. The video caused a lot of apprehension.
In the video, Shekau claims he was shot in the thigh but that he was rescued by fellow believers and protected by Allah. He vowed that his group would continue to use guns to fight the “infidels.”

Commissioner of Police in the state, Ibrahim Abdu, was confident that Shekau was dead and forgotten. He assured residents that his command was on top of the situation and urged them to go about their lawful businesses.
Deputy Commissioner of police in Bauchi State, Alhaji Mohammed Indabawa, believes the Boko Haram incident is dead and buried.

“Well, I don’t think so,” he snaps as soon as you ask him if he thinks the sect can still regroup. “Because, if you look at the history of such sects, once they are dislodged and their leaders are killed, they are never able to regroup and constitute any threats again. Take the case of the Rev Jim Jones in Guyana and David Koresh in Texas, in the United States, the sects died once their leaders died. So I don’t think that these ones will come back. But then, the police in the states are very prepared for them. We are not relaxing our intelligence and we are monitoring their activities and are prepared to nip them in the bud anytime.”

While Force Public Relations Officer, Emmanuel Ojukwu, is not totally ruling out the possibility that the insurgents may threaten the peace of the society again, he’s so certain that the renegades would be suppressed as soon as they make an appearance.

His words: “The event of July 27 last year wasn’t the first time we had such religious uprising when a few renegades took up arms against the government and tried to destabilize the polity. So we cannot say that would be the last time. But what we can assure Nigerians is that whenever they come up, the security agencies, led by the Nigeria Police, will be able to restore normalcy in good time so that peace-loving people can go about their lawful businesses without any fear of molestation. We also have intelligence fully beefed up now and fully deployed to make sure we are able to proactively nip in the bud any such occurrences. So we can assure Nigerians of their safety.”

What are the new measures already put in place by the police? He replies: “We have more police presence in those areas where we are having the likelihood of such things happening. And we have our intelligence operatives in those commands that are working round the clock. And part of the measures is to engage the communities, because the people are not foreigners. They are Nigerians. And some of these bad elements that want to destabilize the country live among them in the communities. So, we are engaging opinion leaders, traditional rulers, religious leaders to partner with us to save lives and property to give police prompt and appropriate information on any such development.”

Well, not many people share such confidence. Rev Yuguda Nduvurwa, chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) whose church was totally razed in Maiduguri says the fear of another Boko Haram is very real.

“People are still scared that it might happen again,” he tells the reporter on a Sunday morning in the Borno State capital. “Even this morning, I had to speak to my congregation that we should not be afraid, but that we should continue to pray and be vigilant. I gave them two solutions. One, we have to pray and fast. So we declared a day of prayer and fasting. The second thing is to prepare ourselves physically. We need to be vigilant and set our houses in order. If there are things with which we can defend ourselves, you know.”
But the authorities are saying that that kind of thing can’t happen again, you remind him.
“Well, that is what they’ve been saying,” he shrugs. “Before July 26, last year, the commissioner spoke. On the 20th of July last year, we went to the police commissioner. We went to the director of the State Security Service (SSS), telling them our fears. But they said, ‘go back, chairman, nothing will happen. The Boko Haram people are not against Christians, they are against government.’ But we have seen what happened. Before then, the rumour had been going round that the Boko Haram people would fight the government, so we wanted the security people to help us, but they remained adamant. On that Sunday, July 26, the government declared that everything was well. But later, around 9pm, the whole town was on fire. And this is what is happening around now. But it’s not like last year. The security agents have stood firm. Even the Shehu has called all the Emirs that they had to be vigilant, that any man caught in his ward would be responsible. But we learnt that the people are going about killing policemen secretly.

“So we are seeing some signals. They said they are coming to avenge the killing of their leader. We should not take chances. God is our strength and he’s the only one that can save us. That is why I told our members that we should pray and fast, and secondly, we should protect ourselves.”
So how do they plan to protect themselves? “There are many ways,” says the pastor. “Let’s leave the rest in the corner.”

You also wonder why he still remains in Maiduguri with all the violence and threats? “Well, I’m a minister and I have a five-year tenure in this state,” he replies. “I’m also from this state. As a human being, you will be afraid. Nobody wants to be killed like a goat. But we can’t leave Maiduguri because we are called to serve. So, maybe after my tenure, we may be transferred outside Maiduguri. But if we will leave, it won’t be because of Boko Haram. We will not leave Maiduguri because of Boko Haram.”


It’s ridiculous to say Gov Sheriff ordered any killing
Shehu Liberty, spokesman to Borno State governor, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, in this short interview with TOPE ADEBOBOYE, responds to some allegations about Boko Haram

Security reports
On the insinuations that government ignored security reports before Boko Haram, I think it is an irresponsible insinuation, baseless and false. The Borno State government is a responsible and responsive government that gives security issues the desired topmost priority. As a demonstration of its deep concern for the protection of lives and property and its demonstration of its commitment to its responsibility of protecting the good people of the state, government has been supporting the various security agencies both financially and with working equipment. The issue of “ignoring” security report doesn’t arise because security matters are sensitive matters and measures being taken are mostly secretive and known only to those involved.

For anybody to accuse government of ignoring security reports before the Boko Haram is uncharitable considering both the covert and overt measures put in place in the state. Government is mindful of its responsibilities and will continue to carry them out diligently.

Extra-judicial killings
On the allegation that government or the governor ordered the killing of anybody, it is not only libelous but ridiculous at the same time. As you may be aware, this matter is right now in court and it will be prejudicial to comment on it. However, all I can say is that the inclusion of the office of the Executive Governor in the suit was faulty in the first instance because the police that were alleged to have ‘killed’ them cannot be said to be the agents of the governor of a state, even though he is the Chief Security Officer of the state.

The Office of the Governor was not involved in any way in ‘extra-judicial murder’ of any person but was only joined as a nominal respondent in the said suit. For the avoidance of doubt, the Executive Governor of Borno State believes in the sanctity of human life and endorses all the rights enshrined in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the African Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. As a true democrat, the Executive Governor also believes in the observance of Fundamental Human Rights of all citizens and following due process in dealing with any violation of the law.

Can it happen again?
On whether Boko Haram can happen again, I pray not. For those who witnessed the incident, I am sure they will never wish to pass through the trauma again even in a dream. Government has put a lot of proactive measures in place and our security agencies are fully ready to curb any attempt by anybody or group to disrupt peace in the state. The traditional rulers have also been involved in this respect, especially in information and intelligence gathering. The people of the state have been enjoined to cooperate with security agencies by reporting any suspicious character in their midst.

Government, on its part, has promulgated the law proscribing the Boko Haram sect. All these are concrete measures put in place to prevent the recurrence of Boko Haram insurgency or any similar breach of peace in the state. The security agencies have also put their various mechanisms in place to check any attempt to cause unrest in the state. Meanwhile, government wishes to assure the general public that it would continue to protect the lives and property of the people of the state and urges the people to be law abiding and conduct themselves peacefully and responsibly.

Eye witnesses to horror
By TOPE ADEBOBOYE

“Since I was a kid, I’ve been hearing different stories about war,” Adebayo Bodunrin informs the reporter in Maiduguri. “I have also seen many war movies. But I had never witnessed any real war until July last year when I saw what war actually meant. It was during the Boko Haram problem in this town.”
“That was a real war, my brother,” IG Newman, an evangelist in the town, quickly concurs. “There is no other word to describe it.”

The two gentlemen are hardly exaggerating. In the days of the Boko Haram insurgency, sanity took a swift, frightened flight from Maiduguri. For those five, horror-evoking days that the incident lasted, it was a chilling, heart-rending narrative of gore and grief, of death and distress, with the Boko Haram men releasing a torrent of tragic tales on the headquarters of the Kanuri race.

Face to face with terror
Bodunrin, who has lived in the Borno State capital since 1988, saw terror face to face in those few days of utter madness in the sun-baked town. Those were the days insurgents with a weird anti-West doctrine seized several states in Northern Nigeria in July last year. They were led by Mohammed Yusuf.
The Ibadan-born automobile technician was lucky to have survived the Boko Haram saga, losing neither his life nor limbs to the rampaging warriors. His wife and children also survived the Borno massacre. His property weren’t so fortunate, however. Everything the sturdy technician had laboured for since he first arrived in Maiduguri 21 years earlier was destroyed.

“I can never forget that Sunday,” he asserts this afternoon, sitting on a wooden bench at an auto garage in Maiduguri. “We went to church and came back without any problem. We even came back late because we still had some programmes after the normal church service. We got home, had dinner and went to bed. Nobody suspected that there would be a major problem later in the day.”

He admits, however, that, while returning from church, he had noticed some strange sights around the town.
“We saw some Muslims going about the town and saying their prayers. But we didn’t suspect anything. The only strange thing I saw was that the people were wearing uniforms that closely resembled those of Mobile policemen. They were parading the town in their uniforms and nobody queried them. That was the only thing that we noticed before we went to bed.”

It wasn’t a sleep that would last for long. At about midnight, sounds of gun shots persistently reverberated round the area, forcing everybody awake. Weary and bleary-eyed from sleep, all Bodunrin and other members of his house could do was to keep wondering where the gun shots could have come from. From then till daybreak, nobody slept a wink in the entire house, as fear pervaded every mind.

But that was just the beginning of their ordeal. “We were sitting down in the house between six and seven the following morning – we were even dozing where we sat since we didn’t sleep well in the night. Then one of the Boko Haram people, who was our neighbour, came to wake us up. He was shouting ‘daddy, daddy, the town is on fire, that we should hurry out. At that time, all I had on was just a piece of trousers while my wife barely covered herself with a wrapper. So we quickly rushed out. Everyone fled wherever he could.”

Bullets and bombs
Bodunrin avers that, right before his very eyes, he saw the army of Boko Haram members invade private homes.
“I saw them vividly as they rushed into our house,” he recalls. “But our house was not the only one. They were going into different houses, all of them behaving as if they were high on some potent drugs. Anywhere they got to and discovered a vehicle, they would draw fuel from the car, spray the house and then throw one of their bombs inside the house. That was how they burnt my house. Anyone caught in the place was quickly slaughtered from the back of the neck. That was how they were killing people.”

Bodunrin says the merchants of death were being led by street boys, youths who lived in the neighbourhood and knew each resident. Those boys, he notes, pointed out the homes of known Christians to the Boko Haram fighters.
“At my house, they took fuel from my car and sprayed the entire house. They then burnt down the house with my two cars, a Toyota Corolla and a Volkswagen Passat. I lost everything. Everything I came to this town with and everything I made since I came was totally destroyed by the Boko Haram people. All my documents and certificates, my children’s certificates, everything was burnt. I wasn’t allowed to pick a pin.”

Since the incident, Bodunrin says his family members have become destitute, having to squat with some friends. “I’ve only been able to rehabilitate one room in the house. Each night, we spread a mat on the floor and sleep.”
He also reveals the modus operandi of the merciless crusaders. According to him, many of them were on horses, while many more rode motorbikes. “What they were doing was to convey as many people as possible to their enclave at Railway quarters. Over there, they would ask you if you were ready to renounce your faith and embrace their form of Islam. If you refused, they would kill you there and then. If you agree to become a Muslim and accept that Western civilization is sin, you would be made to bathe in some water. They would pray over you and then they would let you go.”

A young boy’s narrow escape
Junior, Bodunrin’s 15-year-old son, also came face to face with the horrid misdeeds of the Boko Haram killers.
“When we escaped from the house, my brother and I fled on a bike,” he says. “Then we slowed down, thinking maybe our dad would soon follow us. As we slowed down, we saw people running helter-skelter. Those pursuing them were coming with cars and horses. So we took off. But three of the Boko Haram people started pursuing us on horses. That was how I turned the bike towards the barracks. But in the process, my brother broke his leg. When we got near the barracks, the Boko Haram people that were speeding after us on horses turned back. We eventually stayed inside the barracks and my brother’s leg was treated.”

His elder brother, Lekan, narrowly escaped death in the hands of the Boko Haram men. In fact, the young man had been surrounded by several Boko Haram fighters. “Why they spared him was because he had earlier been good to some Boko Haram people,” Junior tells the reporter. “When he was coming home to see how we were faring, he was stopped by some people on a bike. They told him that their fuel had almost finished and that they needed petrol. My brother just asked them to take some from the bike that he chartered. When they surrounded him and were about to kill him, the people who got petrol from him now pleaded with their Boko Haram colleagues that his life should be spared since he had also helped them earlier. My brother also pretended to be a Muslim. He even said some of their prayers. The Boko Haram people then told him and the motorcyclist to step aside. Just then, the people stopped four other men who were also fleeing. Without any questions, they beheaded the four. That was how my brother escaped death.”

Villains in the church
In the case of Adebayo Bodunrin, the Boko Haram crusaders who devastated his home and cars waited till early in the morning before baring their evil fangs. The group that visited the Rev Yuguda Zubabai Ndurvuwa’s family was not that charitable.

Ndurvuwa, who pastors the EYN church in Maiduguri, is also chairman of the Borno State chapter of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN). He was a direct witness to the Boko Haram incident.
Apart from launching an attack on his church, the Boko Haram men also had a brief to murder him, says the clergyman. He remains happy, however, that neither he nor any member of his family was killed in the post-midnight attack.
The story is better narrated by the respected clergyman. “They came into our church around 1.15am that Sunday night,” he recollects. “We were not even aware that they were coming to fight Christians. What we had learnt from intelligence was that the Boko Haram people were going to be demonstrating against the government. We thought it had nothing to do with Christians. So we didn’t suspect anything.

“Around 9pm that Sunday, one of my church members, a policeman, called me on phone. He said, baba, the town is not good. He said the Boko Haram people were burning police stations and killing people. So we decided to be vigilant in the compound. I called all my security men and other people, and we were at alert. We stayed awake up to 12.30am, but we did not see anything. So we retired to have our rest.

“After some minutes, someone came in and told me that, baba, the compound is not good. I said what happened? He said strange people were occupying the compound. So I came out with torch, thinking they were policemen. When I came out, the gang leader was already breaking the door. So I shouted, ‘who are you? What are you doing?’ The man kept quiet. Then the next thing I heard him say was, ‘go and bomb his office’. So immediately, they came and bombed this office. Then they asked other people to pursue me so that they would kill me, so I started running round in the compound and then I escaped through the other wall. That was how God saved me.

“The rest of the family members also fled through the wall. That was how all of us were saved. But they burnt the office, the church auditorium and the business centres. We thank God that nobody died. But they burnt the church completely and they used bombs. Sophisticated bombs.”

‘We lost many’
Another man of God who witnessed the Maiduguri carnage was Rev Jerry Audu. Alongside Timothy Ola, The Sun’s correspondent in Borno State, this reporter traced the cleric to the
Church of Christ in Nigeria (COCIN), Kirkazama, Maiduguri, where he’s pastor-in-charge.
Neither he nor the church that he pastors was physically attacked by the rampaging Boko Haram fighters. But several people close to him were murdered.

“We lost many people and it affected us a lot,” he says, shaking his head. “We lost Rev Sabo Yakubu of COCIN in Jajeri, we lost four of our members at COCIN Railway and four members at COCIN, Old Maiduguri. Many of our members were wounded and many people lost their property. The wives of three of the men who died were pregnant when their husbands were killed last year.”

The man of God was not physically attacked during the Boko Haram. But he was nearly murdered in 2006 during a religious crisis in Maiduguri. Some Muslim youths purportedly protesting a cartoon in a Danish newspaper had invaded churches, killing, maiming and destroying.

“It was in February 2006 during the Danish cartoon crisis,” he recalls. “Then I was pastor at the church at Gamboru. 56 churches were burnt down. I was at the church attending a committee meeting when somebody phoned me that there was a problem at Ramat Square. Then we heard a noise outside and we came out. We then saw them coming and shouting, together with almajeris. We were initially able to repel them, then they went away and mobilized. They came back with force. We were already running away when I realized that the senior priest and some women were inside the church. I went back because I shouldn’t leave an old pastor and women there. The people then set a very big tyre on fire and rolled it towards the church so that the building will catch fire. Then I took the tyre and rolled it back. That got them angry and they started throwing big stones at me. One of them hit me on the upper lip. I fell down, but my wife lifted me up. We started running. I saw the hand of God at work because it was a Muslim who eventually rescued us. He was the one who stopped the bleeding. He even showed us how to escape in case the hoodlums overpowered him and came into the house. We were there till around 4.pm from 11. By the time we came out, the entire church had been completely razed. But I was lucky to have escaped death.”

It was real war
IG Newman Ezigbo, a parishioner at St. Timothy’s Catholic Church, Maiduguri also witnessed the Boko Haram incident firsthand.
“It was a horrible experience, and we will not wish to see it happen again,” he begins. “I used to hear war, war, but that was my first time of witnessing what war really means.”
Prior to the incident, Newman had organised a crusade in Maiduguri, which ended on July 25, the day before the commencement of the bloodbath. “The following day, a Sunday, our guests were to leave and we made sure that they all left that day. In the evening, I was very tired. One of my friends came and we prayed together. I told him that I was feeling thirsty and that I needed to go out for some soft drinks, because we had been fasting for many days. So we went into one area in GRA where they were selling snacks and drinks. Later, we discovered that we were the only two people there. And this is a place that is always very busy.

“We were there taking soft drinks when a doctor came in with his family. The wife greeted me too. They went in and bought snacks. As they were leaving, he now told me that there were strange things happening in the town, that we shouldn’t stay too long outside. They said the eatery was empty because people were afraid to come out. As we were going home, we discovered that the streets were virtually empty. That was when I knew that something bad might happen soon. So I went to refuel my car. After that, I went home to sleep.

“When I woke up the following morning, I discovered that my house had been occupied by many people. What is the problem, I asked. Then they told me that their houses had been burnt overnight by the Boko Haram people, that there was a lot of shooting and so on.

“I quickly left the house to visit my in-laws and make sure they were OK. On the way, I discovered that the roads were totally dry. People were running helter-skelter. From that Monday morning, ah, Maiduguri was a no-go area. All you would hear everywhere was gun shots. And the worse thing was that you wouldn’t know where the shots were coming from. Is it the police or the army or the Boko Haram people? The only thing you would hear is that, they’ve killed this person, they’ve captured this person, and so on. It was absolute madness.
“The Boko Haram people also planned their operation very well. Some of them were using their bikes to deceive people. In the mayhem when everyone was running for cover, the Boko Haram deployed hundreds of motorbikes to the town, with their members posing as bike operators. As people were desperate to get to their homes, they would pretend to be okada riders and they will take you to their enclave. So it was a terrible thing.”

Running for dear lives
Many of those who lost lives and property to Boko Haram were Christians. But many also were the Muslims who had their entire lives shattered by the activities of Mohammed Yusuf and his men. One of them is Baba Kura Alhaji Fugu.
A civil servant and a teacher with the Arabic Teacher’s College, Maiduguri, Baba Kura tells the reporter that his entire family had a hectic time during the Boko Haram incident. His sister was actually married to Mohammed Yusuf, leader of Boko Haram. But that wasn’t enough to guarantee the family some immunity from the blood-thirsty group, asserts Baba Kura.

“We were in our family compound at our family house and we were in our room when we heard gun shots about 10 o’ clock in the morning,” he tells the reporter. “Then someone rushed to tell me that something was going on in the town. So we tried to move outside together with all members of our household. But the entrance to our house had been blocked by members of the Boko Haram, and any attempt to go out through the gate would be impossible. So we spent all the night with the gun shots. We didn’t know whether the gun shots were coming from Boko Haram or from the military. Gun shots of various sounds were coming throughout the night. And it was raining. At about five in the morning, we tried to leave the house together with my father and other members of the house. We left the house through the backyard. After that, we managed to go to the house of Mala Kachalla, the former governor of Borno State, which is located near our house. The guard opened the gate and we all went in.
“At about 11 am, the place was no longer safe because the fighting had escalated. We wanted to leave the place but it was not possible. So we left for my father’s elder brother’s compound at Gamboru. Everybody was scared of gun shots. Everybody was running. So we left together with the women and children.

“In the evening of that day, the shooting had spread and even Gamboru was no longer safe. So we decided that from there, everybody should disperse and face his destiny. I left for my sister’s compound. My sister was the headmistress at the Gamboru’s primary school. Some even went to the village. Later, we also left for the outskirts of town. It was after everything had subsided that I went to meet my father at his sister’s place where he had been staying.”
His father would be shot days later, allegedly by the police. The family house was also levelled by the authorities.

No help
Adebayo Bodunrin says, with a tinge of regret, that help has not been forthcoming since the Boko Haram calamity befell his household. The authorities, he insists, have not as much as looked his way since the incident altered his destiny.
“We’ve not heard anything from anybody. When the incident happened, the government said we should write and list the things that we lost. I did all that. But till today, nobody has contacted me. Even the Christian Association of Nigeria that is supposed to be helping us has not been too forthcoming. The funniest thing is that most of the people they are helping are not the people who lost things in the crisis. The ones that lost all their property, like me, have not benefitted anything from CAN. Even our church, whatever they get, that is what they distribute to us. For instance, all I’ve been able to get from my church is just about N1, 500.”

As regards government’s help for the victims, CAN chairman in Borno State, Rev Ndurvuwa, has little disagreement, if any, with Bodunrin’s views. “The government has not done anything up till now,” he snaps as soon as the reporter broaches the subject. “The government set up a committee soon after the incident. The following month, August, the committee submitted its report to the governor, and he promised to look into it. It’s almost one year now, but nothing has taken place.

“We learnt that the committee suggested that the governor should assist the victims based on certain percentages. Some were to get 50%, some 30% and others 20%. But we learnt that the governor rejected the proposals. He said he would take them to the National Assembly so that they can work together, and that whatever the federal government brings will be added to his own. Even at the CAN level, we were meeting the governor until September last year. Since then, we haven’t been meeting as such. You know they are busy with politics now. To get him on seat will even be a problem.”
But, government’s assistance or not, the man of God insists that God’s work must not suffer. And currently, he has mobilized his members and they have commenced reconstruction on the razed church. His office has also been rehabilitated.

“That we are rebuilding the church is the handiwork of God and encouragement from my members,” the cleric says. “People have been asking how we have been able to rebuild this church. What we do is, all members of this church, we have agreed that each of us will give one month of our salaries within six months. After this, we will continue again. That is why we have been able to start the reconstruction of the church.”
He’s, however, still at a loss as to why no help came from the government and its agencies at the peak of the crises.
“When the thing happened, there was no assistance immediately from the government agencies, except from Christian organisations like Salvation Army, Voice of Matthias, and a few individuals,” he noted.
“Early in the morning on Monday, we went to the police headquarters as CAN members. We pleaded with them to send us security men, but they said we should go back, that security men were not enough for us. They told us, go and save yourselves. That was what the police commissioner told us. So, throughout that period, there were no policemen that were guiding churches within Maiduguri.
“As CAN officials, we were going up and down to see the damages and the pains our brothers and sisters were going through.

“At EYN Jajeri, five people died. 37 people died in all, including three pastors. Some were killed in the church premises, some were killed outside by Mohammed Yusuf’s men. And then 29 churches were burnt down to ashes.
“The pastors who belonged to the Pentecostal group among the ones that died, were assisted by the PFN. The wife of Pastor Orji has been relocated to Lagos. The wife and family of Pastor Sylvester have been relocated to their home town. But she’s living comfortably, supported by the PFN.
“The members that died in EYN, the church has tried. The headquarters church came and gave two million naira to all the affected members, both EYN and non-EYN members. The church has also worked hard to assist the widows. Some of them are still living in Maiduguri.”

Church offering also affected
To Rev Audu, the incident affected his church in many ways and it will take some time for the congregation to fully recover.
“A lot of our members lost their property,” he tells the reporter. “The offering has also been affected. Church members had to go into contribution in order to feed the families of the men that were killed. It affected us physically and spiritually.”

According to him, initial hopes that the government would compensate members of the church whose property were destroyed were totally dashed. “They said we should send a list of all that were lost, which we did. We sent the list, but up till now, nothing has been done.
“When the thing happened, the governor summoned us, condoled with us and promised compensation to all those affected. It’s been one year since the incident happened, but nothing has happened.
“But the churches that were burnt must be rebuilt. The property that got burnt must be replaced. The families of those that died must not die because their breadwinners had been killed. So the funds that we should have been using to run the church are now being redirected into those other uses.”

‘We paid compensation’
Spokesman to the Governor Ali Modu Sheriff, Alhaji Shehu Liberty, insists, however, that the state government paid compensation to those victims whose cases were verified by the committee set up by the state government.
“Because of the colossal amount of resources involved, government could not pay everything that people lost,” Liberty admits to the reporter.