The past few days have witnessed the deadliest attacks by gunmen in the North-eastern part of Nigeria. The attacks, attributed to Boko Haram, have claimed the lives of hundreds of innocent people, mostly woman and children. Just as the world received with shock the massacre of dozens of students of the Federal Government College, Buni-Yadi, Gujba Local Government Area of Yobe State, more people have been killed in the terror-stricken North-eastern states.
The Buni-Yadi massacre, two weeks ago, is the most horrible treatment any person can conceive for innocent children and it only shows the level of madness that is on the loose. The attackers reportedly started the operation around 12:15a.m unperturbed until after 4am. They slaughtered many students and shot at them with gun, while others were burnt inside the dormitory.
Attacking innocent students is not new since the uprising began several years ago. For example, in September 2013, at least 40 students were murdered at an agriculture training college when insurgents stormed their dormitory in the middle of the night and shot them to death right in their sleep.
Prior to the Buni-Yadi massacre, Boko Haram reportedly killed about 100 people in Bama, a border town, firing on a school, shooting or burning to death dozens of people and torching the palace of the Shehu of Bama.
Then there was the atrocious killing of over 100 people in Igze in Gwoza Local Government Area. More attacks have been reported in Borno. A bus explosion killed more than 50 people.
The tragedy in the flashpoints is not restricted to killing of human beings, as burning of houses, and destruction of economic activities has continued in a geometric progression. The invasion of Mairari in Konduga Local Government Area of Borno is a case in point, as the sect killed two people after setting many houses, shops and vehicles ablaze.
In the usual wanton manner, another set of terrorists revisited Izge, a few days after it had been attacked, killed four people and razed the remaining buildings in the village. Among those murdered were three women and a 75-year-old man.
The incident in Adamawa state where the convoy of the state governor, MurtalaNyako, came under fire and had to make a u-turn has shown how bold the insurgents have become. The bloodbath in the North-east has shown that the activities of the insurgent has not wilted by the pressure mounted on them by the military as assumed over the past few months and now there is no sign of abating.
The North-eastern states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa are under the federal government’s declared emergency rule aimed at crushing the terrorists. The activities of the insurgents, now on a daily basis, have become the biggest threat to security in Nigeria. Boko Haram sect whose struggle for the entrenchment of islamic state in the north has been credited with the killing of thousands of innocent citizens and is believed to be based in the hilly Gwoza, near the Republic of Cameroun.
The federal government, in an apparent design to shut out the militants, has sealed off Nigeria’s northern border with Cameroun. The closure extends from Borno state, by Lake Chad, to the southern end of Adamawa state, around halfway along Nigeria’s 1,500-mile border with Cameroun.
The military has reportedly deployed the Seventh Brigade of the Nigeria Army to smoke out the terrorists from their hideouts in the villages. Many arrests have also been made. We call for more troops in the North-east, so as to make the place safer. Nigeria should reach a pact with Cameroon to dislodge these murderers.
