Boko Haram: Police Gun down Gwoza Protester Seeking Audience With Governor Shettima
Category: Boko Haram News
“I have only four children, one was killed some months ago, while
he was riding his commercial tricycle near Pulka, and now I cannot
account for two of the remaining three even though some people said they
saw the corpse of the third one“, lamented Fatima Mohammed, a
middle aged mother over Gwoza invasion by the Islamic Jihadist group,
Boko Haram. Her cries came as trigger happy Police officers stationed at
the Borno State government house opened fire on protesters as they came
to seek audience with the Governor of the Borno State to table their
plight.
According to information available to 247ureports.com, members of
Gwoza community in Maiduguri as well as those residing in the captured
community currently under the control of the Jihadist group, Boko Haram
had staged a massive protest against the orders of the police not to
stage the said protest. The aggrieved protesters who find themselves
refugees in their homeland, stormed the streets of Maiduguri. The
protesters comprised largely of women who dared police officers to stop
or shoot at them.
But the protest turned bloody as a trigger happy police officer
squeezed his trigger of his AK47 that was pointed at the protesters. The
police officer pulled his trigger as the protesters made their way to
the gate of the government house where they attempted to gain entrance.
He shot a 26years old man in the skull. The injured 26years old man was
rushed to the intensive care unit of the University of Maiduguri
Teaching hospital. It is uncertain the status of the young man.
Unshaken by the shooting, the protesters held on to their protest to
see the governor. They held on to their stand for about 2hours when the
security agents at the government house entrance buckled and allowed
them into the Deputy Governor’s office where they waited to be attended.
But when the Deputy Governor, Alhaji Zanna Umar Mustapha, arrived, the
protesters protested even more angrily accusing the state government of
being parochial – to send them the Deputy who is of Southern Borno when
the state governor, Alhaji Kashim Shettima, was in town. The Deputy,
in reaction, pleaded for calm, promising that he will get the Governor
to address them. They agreed.
But agonizing cries and tears of lamentation continued to fill the
air in the waiting room as several Gwoza natives whose husbands,
children or parents had been killed in Gwoza narrated their respective
ordeals. An elderly man who had lost the entire 15 members of his family
shared that “I cannot even go and bury them; their corpses still litter everywhere near my burnt house since Wednesday now“.
A woman slumped and fainted as she was narrating how she lost her
father, mother and siblings. Afiniki Ngoshe whose brother had escaped
to the Mandara mountains placed a phone call to her brother, Sanusi who
is believed to have been trapped at the mountain without food or water.
Sanusi lamented of the hash and inhumane conditions they were facing at
the mountain. In his words, “we are dying here, no food, no water
and the stench of decaying corpses is suffocating us to death, the Boko
Haram terrorists won’t allow us descend the mountains, please send us
help at once”. Another displaced resident also trapped at mountain had this to say, “We
are feeding on wild fruits and leaves. We scramble for drinking water
that pooled on the rocks before they dry off. We are dying, I don’t know
why federal government had chosen to abandon us now; are we not
citizens of Nigeria? ”
Amidst the cries and lamentations, the Borno state governor, Alhaji
Kashim Shettima arrived to receive the protesters. He received them at
the Multi-Purpose hall. He was quick to plead for understanding while
directing the blame for the situation to the federal government who had
placed a state of emergency on the state. In his words, “if I have
the powers to end this today, I do not need anyone to tell me or remind
me. But God knows I have no such powers, that is why we are suffering
this long“. The governor also assured them that the federal government was doing all within its powers to see that Gwoza is reclaimed.
Alhaji Kashim Shettima revealed also that his administration has
mobilized logistics to ensure that all displaced residents of Gwoza are
received and given the best care in a camp in Askira Uba towns.
In a related development, 247ureports.com has gathered that the
Nigerian soldiers in Gwoza has since retreated back to Maiduguri after
Boko Haram gunmen had attacked them, killing scores and taking over most
of their abandoned weapons.
Source: 247ureports
Related Posts:
- Boko Haram Abducts Army Colonel During Clash With Nigerian military in Gwoza
- Boko Haram Threatens To Attack Akwa Ibom State
- Boko Haram Has 75 Female Suicide Bombers
- Boko Haram Working To Seize Kano, Kaduna, Niger, Kogi And Nasarawa States—Says Intelligence Source
- UK Not Sending Troop To Rescue Kidnapped Schoolgirls – Ambassador
No comments