Day of Rage in Biu Town

Residents of the town wokeup that day like any other day without any premonition of what fate had in stock for them that day. Business activities commenced in the town as early as 6.00am, like any other day, with people going about their businesses until late in the evening when rumour of the killing of […]

Residents of the town wokeup that day like any other day without any premonition of what fate had in stock for them that day. Business activities commenced in the town as early as 6.00am, like any other day, with people going about their businesses until late in the evening when rumour of the killing of a soldier spread like wild fire across the town and this threw the whole area into confusion.

At the end of the fracas, six people, including the driver of the Deputy Speaker of Borno State House of Assembly, Honorable Danlami Kubo, were said to have been killed, while 10 others sustained serious injuries. Vehicles, shops and places of worship were also burnt to aches while property worth millions of naira were destroyed in the fracas. The driver of the deputy speaker was said to be on his way to Gombe to pick his boss who just returned from Saudi Arabia before he met his untimely death. The two jeeps he was traveling with were allegedly damaged by the rampaging soldiers.

The chairman of Biu local government, Yusuf Adamu, in an interview with this reporter, recalled that trouble started when rumour of the killing of a soldier filtered town. The whole area was thrown into pandemonium. According to him, soldiers trooped into town and caused commotion when they heard that one of them was killed.

He said, “the situation in the town escalated when rumour of the killing of a soldier filtered into town. The soldiers went to town and killed people while some cars and some shops were burnt. Many people were beaten by the soldiers. Around 9.30pm that night we took some corpses to Biu General Hospital.

“That night, the whole place was thrown into confusion. I immediately get in touch with Maiduguri. I called the deputy governor, Alhaji Zanna Mustapha who in turn got in touch with the brigade commander in Maiduguri and gave assurance that things will come to normal. We did all we could do to make sure that we have normalcy in the town and thank God that peace has returned to the local government’’ he added

The chairman, while narrating his story, also said “the following morning, we went to the town with some elders to talk to people and console them. Luckily enough, people heeded our advice. Up till now, we are telling the people that it is very important that we maintain law and order and peace has returned to the town. Some policemen have been sent from Maiduguri to the town. The policemen are patrolling the town now and all the community leaders are working round the clock to ensure that there is peace in Biu now.

Dr Edward Dikka, the principal medical officer at Biu General Hospital, told Sunday Trust that 10 people who sustained injuries were brought to the hospital while two of the victims were referred to the Federal Medical Centre, Gombe, due to the degues of injuries they sustained. According to him, all the eight victims have been discharged from the hospital.

Local government faulted military authorities on the cause of the crises

The chairman denied reports that there were clashes between soldiers and youths of the area, maintaining that the cause of the crises was a result of rumours of the killing of as a soldier which prompted other soldiers to go on rampage in the town.

Last month, a nursing mother was killed while two other people were seriously injured during clashes between some youths in the town and soldiers. There were divergent views on the cause of the crises. While the military authority said the crises was caused by the sharing of Ramadan gifts to some National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members by the local government which made the youths to feel aggrieved because they did not benefit from the local government denied this saying the cause was as a result of arrest of some Islamic teachers in Islamiya primary school which made the youths to protest the arrest.

Some victims recount ordeal

Mamman Madu Kwaira is one of the victims of the soldiers rampage. He was said to have been stabbed on the stomach by one of the soldiers who attacked him around Sarkin Baka Street in the town.

Kwaira who is a town planning officer at the Biu local government, while narrating his ordeal in the hands of the soldiers, said, “On that fateful day, it was around 7pm so I decided to go and pick my children who had been with their grandmother since morning. After I picked them together with my wife, I entered my car and as I was trying to turn they just came, about 20 of them. They started shouting stop, and started hitting the car and destroying the glasses. I was forced out of the car and beaten.

The children started shouting daddy! Daddy!! They will kill our daddy. One of them asked me to kneel down, and I refused because I know they would kill me. They cocked their guns. One of them said, ‘shoot him’ and they collected some money out of my pocket and took my wife’s purse containing some money and necklace. They beat the hell out of me and also destroyed my car. One of them cocked the gun and faced me. My first son who is 9-year-old came out of the car and one of them yanked him with the gun and he fell down. At last, one of them stabbed me with a bayonet on his gun God so kind, the knife hook the design on my cloth. I was lucky it did not touch my intestine.’’

“My wife’s purse, which contained, a National ID card, ATM card, jewelries and the sum of N4,000 were forcefully taken from her by the soldiers,” he also alleged.

Another victim, 51-year-old Abdukarim Suleiman, whose one leg was broken by the rampaging soldiers, recalled that he was riding his motorcycle when he was stopped by some soldiers who attacked him.

“They asked me where I was coming from and I told them I was coming from work. Then, one of them shot me on the leg and I fell down from my motorcycle. They still went ahead and deflated the tires of my motorcycle. The local government chairman took me to the hospital,” he said.

While the likes of Kwaira and Suleiman are lucky, 26-year-old Mohammadu Garba was not that lucky as he was killed by the rampaging soldiers who shot him on the chest. When Sunday Trust encountered the father of the deceased at his family house, he was still mourning.

Alhaji Garba Bajoga, the father of the deceased, who wore a sad look when our reporter visited, while narrating his heart-rendering story, said “I was inside the mosque when the soldiers came. After the magrib prayer, I was doing Wasifa (That is prayer usually observed by Muslims before the last prayer of the day). Then they met my son and five other boys outside the mosque and they started beating them. The other boys ran away but my son was shot on the chest by the soldiers before he could escaped and he died on the spot.’’

According to the father of the deceased, who was a student of traditional Islamiya School owned by his father, arrangements had been concluded for his wedding ceremony, lamenting that he was cut down in his prime without the dream coming to reality.

Alhaji Garba, who was with two other sympathizers when our reporter called at his residence in Biu, said, “My dream was for my son to take over this Islamiya school when I die but look at how the dream has been cut short by soldiers who took the life of my son. I have handed over everything to Almighty Allah because I believe that from Him we come, and to Him we shall return and as for the soldiers, I pray that Allah make them change from their evil ways”.

Grema Aliyu, the Chairman of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Biu Branch, who is also the acting state chairman, while narrating what they encountered with the soldiers at a motor park, alleged that 20 vehicles were badly damaged by the rampaging soldiers.

“We were at the motor park and did not know what was happening outside. Then, we saw soldiers with two vehicles. When they entered the park, they started breaking glasses of vehicles. They also looted property in the park. We reported the matter to the local government chairman because he is the chief security officer of the local government. They entered town and killed two of our drivers. One of the driver’s stomach was torn with a knife and they shot him. He died on the spot. We thought we had security here, but look at them destroying property and killing people. When they came to the park, they were just asking,if we were the people killing soldiers? The started beating up people,’’ he alleged.

Sumaila Mohammed, another victim, whose shop was razed down by the soldiers told Sunday Trust that he lost millions of naira.

Mohammed, who was close to tears while narrating his story said, “I was inside my shop when I heard the news that soldiers were beating and killing people in town, so I decided to close my shop. But unknown to me, they were already close, so I ran for my dear life. It was on the second day that I got to know that my shop, together with other shops, wereburnt down,” he lamented

“I just bought goods into the shop a day before the incident and all that vanished in the twinkle of an eye. I appeal to the state government to come to our aide,” he pleaded.

Malam Yusuf Jimoh, another victim, said his car was vandalised by the soldiers. He said, “I was on my way from a neighboring street when I saw the soldiers approaching my directions. I had to run for my life. When I came back home, I saw that my car had been badly damaged.’’

Army denies allegation of looting and killings

The 21 Armour Brigade of the Nigeria Army denied the allegation that soldiers killed innocent civilians in the town. According to a statement from the spokesman of the Brigade, Lieutenant Abubakar Abdullahi, some miscreants in the town were the people who spread the rumor of the death of a soldier in order to cause mayhem and loot people’s property.

“On receipt of the rumour, the of Commanding Officer 23 Battalion directed troops already deployed for routine patrols in the town to verify its authenticity. Youths on sighting the troops, started pelting them with stones. The troops successfully dispersed them and withdrew to the barracks.”

The youths, according to the army spokesman, later regrouped in the evening, barricaded roads, harassed law abiding citizens and destroyed property.

Lieutenant Abdullahi claimed that the violence took a sectarian dimension as the youths set ablaze the Wisdom Chapel and Living Faith churches and partially set ablaze the Deeper Life and the REdeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) Parish, all in the town.

He said troops were deployed to the area to further check loss of lives and destruction of property

Government effort to check youth restiveness in the area

The chairman of the local government, Yusuf Adamu, said he had been engaging the youths in different skills in order to reduce restiveness in the town.

“The state government is doing everything possible to make sure that our youths are engaged in respect of empowerment programmes and training. We have a computer centre, a skill acquisition centre and the Governor, Kashim Shetimma has promised to assist the local government in making sure that our teeming youths are engaged in doing small entrepreneurship businesses,” he said

“We also encourage the youth to engage in farming and the 14 tractors given to the council by the state are currently being utilized. They were given out at subsidized rates to farmers,” he said.

“We have written, a report to the ministry of local government and chieftaincy affairs which is directly supervising the local government and the police say they are going to investigate and take records of what happen. The SSS are here doing their work. All the necessary security agencies have done their work and by the Grace of God I know this time around solution will come so that such thing will never happen again. Our governor has shown sympathy and has directed us to visit the family and make sure that we take records of all damages that were done to people. Compensation will be paid to those who lost their loves, ones and those who lost property,” he further said.

Normalcy return to Biu

When our reporter visited the town during the week, normalcy had been restored as people went about their normal businesses but palpable fears still reigned in the minds of some residents. One of the residents told our reporter that the peace enjoyed for some days after the incident is just a fragile one because the confidence people had in the military had been lost, and there was a kind of mistrust between residents and the soldiers.

“It is as if a battle line has been drawn between residents and the soldiers because I know of some traders who have vowed not to sell their goods to soldiers and this may to another problem,” the resident, who simply identified himself as Musa, told Sunday Trust.

“The soldiers always think they are more human than any other person. You do not expect us to be friendly with people that destroyed our property and killed our people, instead of protecting us,” he added.