Boko Haram widows’ tales of suffering

On being returned to their state of origin they were initially accommodated at the state police command before they were moved to the Police Training School PTS also in Bauchi. They were received on arrival by the State Deputy Commissioner of Police, Abdulkadir Muhammad Indabawa and the Secretary to the State Government SSG, Alhaji Ibrahim […]

On being returned to their state of origin they were initially accommodated at the state police command before they were moved to the Police Training School PTS also in Bauchi. They were received on arrival by the State Deputy Commissioner of Police, Abdulkadir Muhammad Indabawa and the Secretary to the State Government SSG, Alhaji Ibrahim Dan Dija.

The DC said they were going to remain with the police until their parents were found when they will be handed over to them after they have assured security agents that they will not go back to the ideology of Boko Haram. The SSG also said they were going to be provided for until they were released.

On Monday, August 3 the state governor, Malam Isa Yuguda, who visited the PTS where the women and children were kept, approved that they be returned to their parents through their respective Ward Heads. Now, the problem is these women who must have lost their husbands and are now left with little children are lamenting the lost of their spouses as well as breadwinners.   

Most of those interviewed expressed happiness that they have finally been rescued and brought back home but said they did not know what to do without their husbands. They look at the future without hope.

They said when they were taken to Maiduguri by their husbands they were left alone doing nothing except eating and sleeping saying contrary to reports that they were fed with dates only, there was adequate food.

19-year-old A’ishatu Mikhail, while nursing her eleven-month-old baby said in tears that she was confused because she didn’t know if her husband was alive or dead. She said she did not know what to do with her life as the only man she had ever loved was no longer with her.

“I don’t know whether my husband is alive or dead. I have not seen him since he took me to Maiduguri. I don’t know what to do now. He is the only man I have ever loved. I just want him back because I miss him so much”.

The story seems to be the same with all the women because Malama Hassana Ayuba, 21, a resident of Zango also in Bauchi, said she has not seen her husband ever since the crisis started in the state. “We went to Maiduguri together and he took me to a place where I met many other women. He told me that we would be studying the holy Quran. He left the next day and I have not seen him since. I don’t know what to do.”

According to the state governor, Malam Isa Yuguda, the women will not be released to their husbands but instead they will be handed back to their parents as he believed they were misled by their husbands and can therefore not be trusted.

Questions that linger are: what will the women do and how do they escape from the stigma that they may be subjected to by society? Already, some NGOs have started making arrangements to provide vocational skills for the women as well as rehabilitation to enable them get back into the society with ease while religious and community leaders have started cautioning people against stigmatizing the returnees.

Many will need all the assistance they can get because reports going round the state capital have it that some of the members sold their personal houses before leaving for Maiduguri for what they believed was a ‘jihad’.

In Yobe State, many families have hid the identities of the people they lost during the Boko Haram confrontation in Mamudo, a village close to Potiskum. Weekly Trust gathered that parents and children including wives of the deceased Boko Haram adherents were afraid to say they lost anyone in the crisis on the grounds that they may likely be charged to court by relevant authorities.

When our correspondent visited Potiskum and many other locations in Damaturu, families were reluctant to say anything even as many have already been thrown into difficulties following the demise of their bread winners.

A district head in Potiskum Mallam Haruna Usman said even though many youth reportedly went for the battle and did not come back, their families prefer to remain anonymous.

Dozens of women have reportedly relocated to unknown places with their children, a sharp contrast with what obtains in other places where such people report at police station in search of rescue.

The police area commander in Potiskum ACP M.A Mustapha told our reporter that no woman who husband is missing had reported. “The only case we heard was about a woman who reported at a camp in Bauchi and told officials that she was from here”, he said.

The caretaker chairman of Potiskum local government Dr. Sule Lamido told our reporter that many bereaved families are afraid to come forth for assistance. “We want to identify them for possible assistance but most of them are reluctant,” he said.

Our correspondent reports that all the 33 Boko Haram members killed in Potiskum were between the ages of 20 and 40 even as most of them are married and have children.

Chief Imam of Damaturu Ustaz Hudu Mohammad had cautioned that unless relevant authorities regulate teaching, provide job opportunities and other basic privileges of life, sectarian crisis would be difficult to contain.

Barely a week after the encounter between members of Boko Haram Islamist group and police which left 3 persons dead and 2 police officers injured, including a Divisional Commissioner of Police (DPO), the town of Wudil, situated just about 44 kilometres from Kano city, is gradually, albeit steadily, regaining its calmness and peace.  People are going about their businesses as though oblivious of the sect violence that gripped the area few days ago. Save for heavy security presence in and around the local government area and heaps of rubbles from structures that once served as mosque, headquarters and house of the group in the locality, the entire area holds no physical remnants of the gory event. However, there is a noticeable and palpable general apprehension towards strangers among the people, while families who are directly affected have tales to tell.

The suspicious attitudes to strangers by residents might not be unconnected with the fear of being implicated for conniving or association with the sect. “You cannot come here to ask us about the sect,” a visibly disturbed man who lives close to the demolished Sabon Garin Wudil headquarters of the Boko Haram group told our reporter who was trying to locate families of the Boko Haram members. “It is a national issue, therefore go to the police and ask them,” he retorted. But even then, he was still apprehensive of divulging the where about of the other demolished house to the reporter. “You see I don’t know, and none of my brothers here knows the place”, he said conclusively.  Weekly Trust investigation reveals that the fear to speak openly of the activities of the group, especially to strangers is triggered by the fear of being implicated for association with the group. “If you say you don’t know, nobody will come to you and say so and so persons said you utter this or that,” somebody who craved anonymity said.

But for a Fulani woman, Rabi Ahmadu, she has a reason to talk to whoever will care to listen pertaining to the way which the upheaval affected her. When the police came to raid the Sabon Garin Takau residence of the sect members in their neighbourhood, her husband and his two sons, who were startled by sporadic gunshots, went to have a look at what was unfolding and from then, she is left with a tragic story to tell.

On that fateful day, “my husband (Ahmadu Birkila) and one of my sons (Iliyasu and Murtala) were taking their meal when the whole area went wild with sounds of gunshots and then there was noise near our door. As every other man would do, my husband and my sons walked to the door to find out what was happening, then suddenly a hoarse voice yelled at them ‘what are you peeping at?’ and before we knew what was happening they were all ordered out and headed away.”

Just like Ahmadu’s wife, his mother, Aishatu Adamu, believed neither her arrested son nor grandsons have been a member of the sect. She said since they moved into the area from a village called Gware,  few months back, they have never come across any member of the house that was demolished, let alone mingle or associate with them. “My son is a poor bricklayer who works hard to put foot on the table for us and that they have taken him to Bompai (Kano Police Headquarters), life is becoming unbearable for us”, the elderly mother complained.

Ahmadu sired six children, while Iliyasu his first son who is in detention with him has three children and a young wife. Murtala’s wife (the second child also in detention), Weekly Trust learnt, was scared by the way her husband was arrested by the police and ran to an undisclosed location. The burden of fending for the extensive family was initially placed squarely on Ahamadu and his two sons, and since their detention, the family have been struggling to keep body and soul together. The only help that once came to them, the elderly mother said was from Ahmadu’s boss (name withheld), who brought the family some millet. Since then, no other person has come to their aid. “Two days ago”, the Fulani mother said, “we sold a goat at Wudil market and bought some basic food items, only God knows how we can be able to sustain ourselves this way for long.”

After the arrest, Ahmadu’s elder brother (not available to speak with our reporter), went to Bompai, their mother said, and was allowed to see the suspects. “But when he asked the police to allow them to go home with him, they refused”, she said.

An elderly man, who also lives close to the demolished house, said he was surprised at the arrest of the Fulani men, as according to him, they are new in the area and barely relate with people. “Even I who has been here for long,” the man who does not want to be mentioned said, “cannot tell you who owned that demolished structure, or who lived there”.

It will remain to be seen when and how respite is going to come to the family and the town in general.

Meanwhile the Boko Haram sect members have left other shadows that will continue to elicit much debates and comments in days to come. Describing the killing of the leadership of the sect by the military and the police, Festus Keyamo, lawyer and human rights activists said: “What happened in the case of the case of the Boko Haram leader is outrageous.” He described the death of the sect’s leadership as murder.

Also, in the wake of the crisis that followed the violence that occurred governors of the 19 northern states have been reported to be proposing a law that would regulate preaching. This new move has been eliciting reactions from both Muslim and Christian clerics. “What they should have done is to create a system whereby only those who are qualified to speak about the religion will do so,” said Ustaz Abubakar Siddique Mohammed who is president of the Abuja Muslim Consultative Forum.

The Public Relations Officer of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Rev. Joseph John Hayab said over the issue of regulating public preaching that “the implementation of this kind of decision is a herculean task. If you say traditional rulers should regulate preaching, probably you fail to understand the difficulties that they are going to face.” But then as the Boko Haram debacle has shown, more difficult times lie ahead except something is done to address the problems they have left behind. And still, the families left behind continue to cry in pain.