The woman, who witnessed the gruesome slaughtering of her husband, has since lost her mind and is now suffering from mental disorder.
Rukayyat who is presently
staying in the Damare NYSC Camp for internally displaced persons, IDPs in
Adamawa State, could hardly coordinate her speech when she spoke to Vanguard
Metro, VM.
The mental turmoil that
Rukayyat is going through was visibly written all over her body when she was
ushered in to have a chat with VM.
She looked scruffy, dishevelled,
skeletal and pale. When asked what was wrong with her, she gazed into the skies
before muttering that her husband was slaughtered like a ram in her presence by
the Boko Haram insurgents.
One of the inmates, who did
not want her names in print, told VM that since the gory incident took place,
Rukayyat has been behaving in a funny way.
According to her,
Rukayyat’s four-month-old baby girl is now being taken care of by other
concerned women in the camp, since she can no longer cater for the baby
adequately.
Meanwhile, health experts
attached to the camp have subjected her to series of counselling to see if she
can regain her mental stability. Rukayyat’s story is one of the gory tales told
by those who were displaced from their homes in Adamawa State since Boko Haram
laid siege on the once peaceful state.
Incessant killings
The incessant killings and
destruction of properties of innocent Nigerians by the dreaded sect in the
North Eastern states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa have rendered many victims
homeless. Some of the internally displace persons, IDPs, from recent attacks in
Gwoza, Madagali, Gulak, Michika, Bazza, Shuwa, and part of Mubi are now taking
shelter in a refugee camp located at the Damare NYSC camp.
A visit to the camp would
make even the strong-willed to break down in tears. The camp has become a
miniature Mecca with those who are touched by the plight of the victims, coming
in to donate relief materials.
At each of such occasions,
the inmates took time to recount their ordeal and how they have been made
widows, widowers, orphans and homeless by the evil-minded insurgents.
According to them, they
were only lucky to escape alive as hundreds of others, mainly youths, were
slaughtered and their homes razed. Recounting her ordeal, another victim of the
insurgency who resides in the Damare Camp, Mallama Tani Asabi said the
insurgents had a field day in her town when they attacked it.
According to Mallama, they
(Boko Haram members) operated unmolested. She explained that both the soldiers
and residents could not offer any strong resistance as they ran into the nearby
bushes and hills to save their lives.
She alleged that the
insurgents later assembled the people who could not escape and slaughtered them
at the community square.
Tani further alleged that
when the insurgents became tired of slaughtering the men, they decided to shoot
the remaining; hence the town was littered with corpses of men.
“We, the women, took up the
task of burying our husbands and children who were killed in their hundreds, as
a mark of our last respect to them.
We did this because almost
every part of the town was littered with corpses and we could not help but bury
them. The exercise was as gory as it was chilling and will remain indelible in
our minds,” she cried.
Tani said initially the
insurgents promised to take care of the women (having killed their husbands)
and children but the promise was fulfilled in the breach as the insurgents
started abducting them into the bushes. “That was why we had to run for our
lives,” she explained.
Another IDP, Mr. Bukar
Bitrus, said he suspected foul play in the whole saga. He alleged that the
government is behind the unfortunate incident.
His words: “A day to the Boko
Haram onslaught in the town, some indigenes of the area who are residing in
Abuja and Lagos asked us to repair a bridge in Awale, after which they asked us
to go back to Gwoza town,” he said, alleging that the people prevented anybody
from going out of the town. He said he managed to escape before the insurgents
struck, hence he believes that there is a grand conspiracy behind the set up.
Bitrus said the insurgents
came in large numbers. “At first, they told us (residents) they are not after
us but are on a mission to dislodge the soldiers.
They therefore proceeded to
the various military units in the town, including TC, Kofar Sarki and
Government Lodge. Immediately they dispersed the soldiers, they came back to
the town and opened fire on the youths,” he said, adding that he was forced to
lie in thick foliage behind his house until the sporadic shooting subsided.
Sporadic shooting
Bitrus said the cessation
of shooting was a decoy by the insurgents to deceive the people that they have
left the town. According to him, unsuspecting residents who fled to the bushes
and hilltops returned to the town, only for members of the sect to strike again
in the morning when the people had started their daily chores. He alleged that
as a result, about 2000 people were killed.
“Whenever they sighted a
youth, they will kill him unless those that pledge to become new converts of
the insurgents,” he said.
Another refugee, Mallam
Isyaku Bama, said he stayed in the hilltop for about 15 days before being taken
to the IDP camp.
Unlike Bama, Mallam Ahmadu
Datti, another IDP, said he hid in the ceiling of his house for 10 days before
his wife told him that the insurgents have launched a house-to-house search for
men and have slaughtered many of those they found. Datti said he waited till
night fall before escaping through the bush. According to him, he left the town
around 8pm and reached Madagali around 2:00 am.
But another 10-year-old
member of the camp, Sini Mamza, said he has been out of school for a long time
as insurgents have burnt down their school.
Culled From Vanguard
dis pple are heartless
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