Yola — First come the whispers, then
accusations loud enough to raise alarms
throughout northeastern villages ravaged by
extremist violence. Next, people accused of
being Boko Haram are rounded up, sometimes
by the military, sometimes by a civilian self- defense force. Many are never seen again.
The murmurs exploded into a rare open-
throated protest recently when a teacher and
two middle-aged farmers were taken away in
Duhu village. Women who knew the men
insisted they did not belong to the Islamic extremist group, and marched to a nearby
military base to demand their release. Instead,
the men were shot to death and their bodies
were dumped outside town. Nigeria's military
denied ever detaining
elementary school teacher Habu Bello and farmers Idrisa Dele and Umaru Hammankadi
last month. But several villagers disclosed that
they watched as the men were led away by
uniformed soldiers who accused them of being
Boko Haram fighters. Threats to civilians come
from all sides and extrajudicial killings have not abated despite
the president's declaration of victory over
Boko Haram. The insurgents have shown no
mercy, but many people are equally afraid of
the soldiers and the self-defense Vigilante
Group of Nigeria. Now, they are learning to fear their own
neighbors as well. As refugees return home
and try to rebuild
lives from nothing — houses have been razed,
wells poisoned, crops and livestock looted —
some are capitalizing on the fear and insecurity to settle old scores, erase debts, win
land disputes or otherwise get rid of enemies,
human rights lawyer Sunday Joshua Wugira
explained. "If you have a problem with
someone, you can
influence the military to pick them up and then you will never hear about them again," he
revealed from his offices in Yola, where police
are investigating the January killings of three
brothers from the Fulani tribe. Police have
detained members of the civilian
self-defense group, who said they took the suspected insurgents to the military barracks
for detention, but were turned away and then a
separate group of soldiers seized and killed
the brothers, Deputy Superintendent Othman
Abubakar said. Even unborn children are not
free from allegations of terrorism. A teenager said she
was captured last year by Boko Haram
fighters who attacked her village and killed her
father. Soldiers arrived to hunt down
extremists, but interrogated her three brothers
instead. Vigilantes then seized and killed them, she said. Kidnapped by Boko Haram at 16 and
raped in
captivity, she was freed in November when
soldiers attacked the extremist camp where
she was being held. She tried to return to her
home village, but had to flee again because vigilantes threatened to kill her unborn child,
calling it a "terrorist baby," she said. The AP
does not identify victims of sexual assault.
Duhu district leader Mustapha Sanusi said he
has no official record of detainees being killed
or disappeared, but has notified the military and legislators about complaints. "I don't have
any figures, but I can confirm to
you that there have been a series of
complaints about extrajudicial killings," he said.
He called for a federal investigation and said
"the military should always operate within the confines of the law." Also read: Boko Haram
suicide bombers target market, school
President Muhammadu Buhari promised to end
military abuses last year, pledging an
investigation into Amnesty International's
allegations that since 2011, the military has been responsible for the deaths of some 8,000
detainees who were shot, starved or tortured.
That's more than a third of the estimated
20,000 people killed during the 6-year-old
insurgency. Human rights groups also accuse
the self-defense fighters of extrajudicial killings but no one has collated figures.
Buhari's spokesman, Garba Shehu, referred
requests for comment for this AP report to the
military, but army spokesman Colonel Sani
Kukasheka Usman did not respond. However,
the army on Thursday announced the establishment of a special office to "investigate
all cases of human rights complaints brought
before it." And it said it has established a
special court martial to try "all cases of
indiscipline and related acts of misconduct,
including human rights abuse." Buhari told a delegation from the United States
Institute of Peace this week that "mechanisms"
have been put in place to ensure human rights
are respected in the fight against terrorism.
"We attach great importance to human rights,"
he said. "If there are breaches, they will be investigated and dealt with." There's little
evidence of this in the villages,
and one of nine senior commanders that
Amnesty International accused of possible war
crimes — Major General Ahmadu Mohammed —
was reinstated last month without any investigation, ending an early retirement
prompted by a mutiny among his men. Boko
Haram, meanwhile, is attacking softer
targets in remote villages, city markets and
refugee camps. Poisoning the atmosphere in
camps and villages, insurgents and suicide bombers have
quietly joined the thousands of people freed by
Nigerian troops. Soldiers have told AP that
Boko Haram has infiltrated Nigeria's security
forces as well, fighting with the army by day
and against it by night. Refugees panicked last month when they
found the trussed-up body of a refugee with
his head bashed in at the Shettima Ali
Monguno Teachers Village camp on the
outskirts of Maiduguri. "We now fear more for
our safety because we cannot tell who is good or bad among us," said
one young refugee, insisting on anonymity for
safety. "Our camp is well fenced and secured,
yet one of us was murdered over the night."
Disappearances from villages also are
increasing, bringing new waves of terror to people recently liberated from Boko Haram's
"caliphate." They include a woman and her five
children
who are being held for ransom by soldiers at a
barracks in Yola, according to the woman's
husband, a gardener in Lagos, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he fears his
family will never be freed. He said soldiers are
demanding 25,000 naira for each family
member, totaling about four months of his
salary. He told AP he's sent 45,000 naira, but
all are still held. In an indication of how many people are
wrongly accused, Nigeria's army last week
freed 267 detainees including dozens of
children, some preschoolers, saying
investigators had determined they had no links
to Boko Haram. Only eight suspects were handed over to police for further investigation.
Commanding officer Major General Haruna
Umaru said the releases should reassure
Nigerians that "no individual will unjustly or
unduly be incarcerated." The many allegations
of gross rights abuses have hampered the cooperation some allies
including the United States can offer to Nigeria
because of laws that prohibit arming and
training troops that may be guilty of war
crimes. Wugira, the lawyer, said he and others
continue to work to uphold people's rights. He said he got two young men released from
illegal military detention in December, and freed
a group of 10 wrongly accused young men in
November, after a soldier testified that they
had actually fought against Boko Haram. But
most disappearances go unchallenged, said Wugira, even though he offers his
services for free. "People will say, at the end
of the day we will
never get justice," he said. "People are living in
fear." - AP

End time northeast

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