Many tales have been told about the people who swelled the ranks of the Boko Haram terrorist group as its heartless foot soldiers and commanders and fought its cause, but little has been heard from the fathers, husbands, brothers or sisters of these once dreaded sect members about the orgy of violence that their loved ones have orchestrated. Our reporter traces some of these families to Maiduguri and Damaturu and tells their stories.
Fatima Mohammed, 25, showed no regrets as she coherently recounted the moment she tricked her Boko Haram husband into the net of the men of the Joint Military Task Force, code named Operation Zaman Lafiya Dole in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State, three years ago and watched him killed.
As long as she remembers the reason for her action, she would never regret exposing him, she said, smiling as she narrated the startling story to Daily Trust on Sunday.
Fatima is one of the thousands of residents of the North-East with horrible stories to tell about how their children, husbands or siblings joined the Boko Haram.
After the killing of her husband, the mother-of-two relocated to Maiduguri to live with her sister.
Her husband’s name was Mohammed Mustapha, she said, recalling that they had been married for only two years before he subscribed to the Boko Haram ideology and joined the group.
They were based in Bama, the second biggest town in Borno State and one of the territories that once fell under Boko Haram control.
The young mother had no clue her husband was involved with the group, which violent campaigns were already decimating lives and communities in the North-East, especially in Borno, until the family relocated to Banki town, near the border with Cameroon.
“It was at Banki that I noticed that he had joined the Boko Haram terrorists and was already relating well with them,” she said.
Her suspicion was confirmed when Mustapha started coming home with weapons, encouraging her to find way out of the marriage.
“I began seeing him come home with a gun. That unsettled me and my trust for him ceased. Since then, I began praying for the opportunity to end the marriage. That was how I lived with him for about three more years, confused over what to do,” she recounted.
Amina had a bitter personal experience with the violent Boko Haram sect.
She had lost family members in one of the group’s attacks and was not ready to cohabit with someone indirectly connected with the killing of her loved ones as a husband. According to her, an opportunity came her way with the formation of the vigilante outfit, the Civilian JTF in parts of Borno, to assist the security forces in the campaign against the insurgents.
“That sounded the best opportunity I was waiting for. I sought his (my husband’s) permission to travel to Bama. I actually intended travelling to Maiduguri, but I dared not tell him so, because he might suspect I was up to something.
“He enquired what I was travelling to do in Bama and I said I wanted to visit my relatives and that my mother was ill. He granted me the permission, warning that I should not exceed one day there. I promised him that God willing, I would not exceed one day.
“Instead of Bama, I left for Maiduguri where I summoned the courage to describe the conduct of my husband to the members of the JTF and they confirmed to me that he was a Boko Haram member. So I promised them that God willing I would pull him by the hand and deliver him to them,” she said.
Immediately she returned to Banki, Fatima began plotting ways to convince her husband to go with her to Maiduguri.
“I counseled him to surmount whatever fear he had. I consistently tried to convince him that nothing adverse would happen to him. He trusted me and always believed whatever I told him. He, therefore, said: ‘Okay, is that true? Are you sure you are telling me the truth? I hope you are mindful of your love for me?’ I said, ‘yes, there would not be any adverse consequence if you renounce and surrender. I love you. I came with you to Banki because of my love for you.’ So he agreed to go with me to Maiduguri.
“It was a Wednesday. Already, I had plotted with the men of the Civilian JTF. Immediately we arrived the planned location in Maiduguri, the members of the Civilian JTF grabbed him and dragged him to the military.
“After he was handed over to the soldiers, he lifted his head and gave me a stern look. I noticed that he looked at me thrice without uttering a word, apparently aggrieved that I had betrayed him. One of the soldiers thumbed up for me. Already, members of the Civilian JTF were congratulating me for the feat. Right before me, he was shot dead by the soldiers.
“I then heaved a sigh of relief and satisfaction. The insurgents are useless. Before the formation of the Civilian JTF, they had killed my father, my two elder brothers, my uncle and a cousin. I don’t see any reason whatsoever for preferring a terrorist husband to these relatives. You can marry another husband if one dies, but you cannot get another father if the only one you have dies. This is why I felt placated when he was killed before me. I performed ablution and prostrated in expression of gratitude to my Creator for enabling me to achieve vengeance,” she said.
She said her two children were now living with relatives in different parts of the country and dismissed fears that they could face stigmatization on account of their father.
Not far from the palace of the Shehun Borno, 67-year-old Alhaji Mustapha Muhammad Ali and his family were taking refuge in the house of his relation.
The merchant moved his family there after an attack on Bama town by the Boko Haram militants. In spite of their plight, the father still has reason to cheer at the memory of what became the fate of his child, Babagana.
About two years ago, he dragged his son to the military and had him shot for being a member of Boko Haram.
“I am not missing him,” he said about the boy. “I have 14 other children alive; nine males and five females. Although we were sacked from Bama for over a year now, I am now at peace. I still remember that apart from me, about five of my neighbours at Bama also surrendered their insurgent children to the soldiers to be killed. We all knew that if we allowed them to live, they would not spare us one day.”
For him, it was a matter of time before his son came after him, because Boko Haram insurgents were known to kill their parents.
“When we heard that the Civilian JTF had been formed in Maiduguri and these completely worthless children were being killed, I caught my son and dragged him before the soldiers. I handed him over to them and they shot him dead before me. I had to do so before he killed me as most of his fellow insurgents did to their parents and close relatives. We heard that to secure an enviable profile among the insurgents, you have to kill your father or sleep with your mother.
Alhaji Muhammad linked the reason Boko Haram succeeded in recruiting young people to “poor upbringing”. “Most of them grew up without education and discipline,” he said.
His son, Babagana, was recruited in Banki, Alhaji Muhammad explained. “Babagana was recruited into Boko Haram at a village called Banki, on the Nigeria/Cameroon border, at the age 12 without my knowledge. If I had an inkling that he was making moves to join them, I would have stopped him by whatever means. I later got to know that he had been recruited.
“When he came to Bama, I examined his attitude very closely to confirm what I heard about him. When I confirmed it, I told him that I did not trust him anymore. He replied insolently that it was their (Boko Haram insurgents) way of life and they would not renounce it; that they wanted to carry out jihad to annihilate the infidels.
“When he told me all these without any trepidation, I concluded that I should no longer tolerate him. So I caught him and dragged him before the soldiers because he might not spare me, his father, one day. I don’t regret getting him killed,“ he said.
The displaced businessman recalled that the insurgents made life a hell for them and prayed no such calamity was visited upon them again.
“It is appalling to see our own children killing us and sacking us from our abodes. The boys made away with seven cars from my house at the peak of their horrendous atrocities on us. I cannot say if they were led to my house by my son,” he said.
Mohammed Mustapha, who appears to be in his late 40s, is the guardian of Ibrahim, the boy he said he would live to regret having as his ward. Ibrahim joined the Boko Haram terror group at Banki, where he went to further his Qur’anic studies.
He has been killed by the Operation Zaman Lafiya Dole soldiers.
Mustapha, a thriving Bama trader before Boko Haram insurgents sacked the town, told the story of his terrorist ward: “We are cousins. When our fathers died, he was entrusted to me as his guardian. He was progressing in his studies at a Qur’anic school in Bama when he came one day and told me he was going to Banki to continue his studies.
“Not long after he relocated to Banki, I received information from several sources that my ward had joined Boko Haram. I resolved to set out for Banki to confirm what I had been hearing about him. Before embarking on the journey, however, I went to notify his mother and consult her on the appropriate move to take, because she knew he had relocated to Banki.
“The mother allayed my fears, saying that her son had not gone wayward. I rested my case and took leave of her.
“While going along a street at Bama, I saw him. I caught him immediately and dragged him to the boys of the civilian JTF in our ward and told them that I had been hearing nasty stories about him and I wanted them to investigate him properly. In the course of their investigation, the civilian JTF boys discovered that he had friends with whom he had been roaming the streets.
“So they combed the streets in search of the friends. They eventually got two. In the course of investigating them, they all confessed being members of Boko Haram.
“Before the end of the investigation, the naughty boy escaped and fled to Banki. He was pursued there and, luckily, he was caught and brought back to Bama.
“It was resolved that he would be put under observation for two months; but not long after, information came to me that he had been caught with a gun. I was asked if I could do anything to show he had no links to insurgency. I replied: “What will I do with him? Our parents have died. Of what use will a worthless boy, a terrorist, be to us?’ I disowned him, and he was killed by the soldiers.
“Our fathers and uncles died and left behind about 50 of us. All but this boy are righteous and disciplined. None of us his kinsmen ever exerted any influence on him as to drive him out to join the terrorists. So, none among us, let me repeat, none among us his kinsmen, is aggrieved and pained over the fate that had befallen him. In fact, we all jubilated.
“You know, whenever they enter the town, the first people they kill are their parents, brothers, sisters and other relatives. So, if he had not been killed, we would have been the first set of people he would kill whenever he entered Bama. We were all happy that he was killed.
“When they sacked us from Bama, the Boko Haram boys in our ward killed my three uncles. They were old, so they had no energy to flee. So, while we all fled, they remained behind and the bad boys who had flooded the streets of the town killed them. Since no man was left in the town, our women performed their funeral rites.”
To be continued next week.

Touching...although this is what happen when they give birth to battalions of children without taking care of them