Gwoza: Anxiety as wives of missing cops get restless dreams

Mrs. Linda Ndom Adamu, a mother of three, is married to one of the policemen declared missing after last year’s brutal attack on the Police Mobile Force Training Camp in Gwoza, Borno State. Her husband, Cpl Ndom Adamu, was mobilised from the regular police in Kano and sent to the Mobile Police (MOPOL) Squadron 38, […]

Mrs. Linda Ndom Adamu, a mother of three, is married to one of the policemen declared missing after last year’s brutal attack on the Police Mobile Force Training Camp in Gwoza, Borno State.
Her husband, Cpl Ndom Adamu, was mobilised from the regular police in Kano and sent to the Mobile Police (MOPOL) Squadron 38, popularly known as “Tiger Squadron” in Akwanga, Nasarawa State. The missing cop was only few days in Akwanga when he was marched to Gwoza for the compulsory training. He was only two days old in Gwoza when the insurgents, Boko Haram struck on the afternoon of August 20, rocking the camp with shelling from armoured tanks.
His colleagues, who were lucky to escape the onslaught, told Sunday Trust that the invasion by a band of armed Boko Haram insurgents, some of them in tanks, happened about 3pm when the trainees were holding their first class at Gwoza. This young husband to a young mother was among the 35 policemen declared missing by police authorities after the invasion that lasted several minutes.

Two brothers at combatant training
Cpl Ndom attended the combatant training alongside his elder brother, whose names we were advised not to publish. His elder brother was lucky to escape after struggling to free himself from rubbles which trapped him inside the classroom.
“I struggled and freed myself from the rubbles of the falling walls of the classroom. I ran, calling out on my younger brother. But he was not in sight. Everybody was running. There was a stampede,” he said.
The two brothers attended the training in company of 61 others from Tiger Squadron, which unit was headed by ASP Kabiru Ringim.
Another escapee told the story of how the attack came. “We were in the class that afternoon, and suddenly, the whistle went off. We were told the camp was under attack and that we should head straight to the armoury and pick our arms for defence,” he said, but added, “we were late; there was nothing we could do.
“We only struggled to find ourselves out of the class. Others couldn’t. We went in different directions, calling out those we could remember. We helped one another to escape. We didn’t want to leave anybody behind.”
He said that by morning of August 20, the day of the commencement of the training, authorities at the training camp instructed them to submit their weapons to the armoury.
“We were taken unawares,” another escapee said. He said a tank rammed into the gates of the training camp and forced its way into the large premises, with armed insurgents firing as they took on the trainees and their trainers.
There was a surveillance done by a helicopter, another escapee said. “First, a helicopter which looked like a military one came and hovered around the school and left. In no time, the attackers stormed the camp,” he said.
Of the 63 drawn from Akwanga for the training, 10 were newly mobilised, with Cpl Adamu as one of them. Of the 10 newly mobilised cops, three went missing after the invasion; one of them Cpl Adamu.
The training was to last for one month and two weeks, according to inquiries. But the attack which sacked the camp, sent the escapees packing on the first day of the training which had Tiger Squadron, MOPOL 58 in Lafia, Nasarawa State; MOPOL 42 in Gusau, Zanfara State and MOPOL 50 in Kubwa, Abuja.  
Of the 35 declared missing, Akwanga accounts for seven, and Lafia,, also in Nasarawa, accounts for another seven, making 14. The rest are from the other squadrons, according to inquiries.
The missing Tiger Squadron policemen are Sgt. Hussain Shagari, Sgt. Hosea Jacob, Cpl. Salwani Safiyyanu, Cpl. Ndom Adamu, Cpl. Otokpa Moses, Cpl. Monday Kigbu, and Cpl. Emmanuel Dogo.
Some of them were to return to wear new ranks, Sunday Trust learnt.

Alakyo 2013
The tragedy that struck Tiger Squadron in Gwoza came barely a year after the squadron was devastated by a similar brutal attack. On May 7, 2013, a convoy of over 100 policemen was ambushed, and about 64 policemen and 10 operatives of the Department of State Security (DSS) were killed in Alakyo, outside Lafia. Many of the policemen killed were drawn from Akwanga.
The police, which memo was presented by a former commissioner of police in the state, Shehu Ibrahim, at a panel of inquiry, blamed the attack on Ombatse, an Eggon group. The memo said the security operatives set out to arrest Baba Alakyo, a man widely believed to be the spiritual leader of Ombatse after law enforcement agencies received reports that he was allegedly sending his followers to storm churches and mosques to force clergies of Eggon extraction into swearing an oath to a hearten god.

“We can’t forget Alakyo, Gwoza”
The Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Suleiman Abba, was in Akwnaga on December 30, 2014, and declared that the police authorities had not forgotten the incident in Alakyo and Gwoza.
The IGP said the police had sustained the search to secure the safe return of its men who were found missing after the Gwoza invasion.
The IGP was in Akwanga on a one-day visit to widows of slain policemen and wives of the missing ones. He was accompanied by top police officers, including the state commissioner of police, Yukubu Usman,, and the commissioner in charge of mobile police, Ibrahim Idris, who was recently posted out of Nasarawa.
The IGP, who disbursed the sum of N7.740 million to 98 relatives and dependants of the slain policemen and those missing, as well as some foodstuff as part of the festivities, said the police had not forgotten their husbands and would go after the perpetrators to give the fallen heroes justice.
He said his visit to Akwanga was an answer to questions of whether the police have forgotten Alakyo and Gwoza. He, however, added that his appointment came at a time the force was facing serious challenges, including preparations for 2015 general elections.
“Even at the height of that (challenges), I still found time to come, which is an indication that they are not forgotten. And let me assure you that even my successors, whom I believe would be professional police officers, will not forget them,” he said of the Alakyo incident.
On Gwoza, he said: “Without mincing words, and with due consideration of the status of my office, I want to say that we mean every word we have said. The search continues, the hope is still there, very alive. And we are with the families. Not quite three months ago, one of them (missing policemen) surfaced and reported to his office.” He said the police could not declare the dead because there are no evidences that they were killed.
“Let me tell you, dead or alive, we will continue with the search.”
Both widows of the slain policemen and wives of the missing operatives expressed gratitude to the IGP for the visit and welfare package. They prayed for the police to be strengthened to secure the freedom of their husbands missing after the Gwoza attack.

Wait for husbands’ return prolonging
Meanwhile, the wait for the safe return of their husbands has continued to prolong, now dragging into the sixth month since the invasion. The missing cops’ wives say anxiety has grown from expectation, to worry. Nevertheless, they are expressing optimism that their husbands would return into their arms, like they only went to work.
One of them spoken to said she had embarked on a project to develop a plot her husband bought before he left for Gwoza, hoping the missing cop would return soon to take over to completion.
“I will use the welfare package which the IGP gave in December to start developing a plot of land my husband acquired before he left for Gwoza,” Mrs. Victoria Shagari, a mother of four, who has been married to Sgt. Hussain Shagari for about 20 years now, said when our reporter visited her in Akwanga.
“I called my husband’s people and showed them the cheque from the IGP. They asked what my plans were and I told them that if they would approve of it, I would like to start developing a plot my husband bought recently in Akwanga.”
“I know my husband will return. I want him to return to appreciate me for taking good care of his children, and for building a house for him,” she said tearfully.
Another victim, the wife of Cpl. Otokpa Moses, Mrs. Grace, told Sunday Trust in Akwanga that she had refused to cry, hoping that her husband would soon return. The mother of six, the first now 18 years old, said she was not going to regret that her husband went for the Gwoza training, saying, “He is a cop and has to receive training. He told me that MOPOL job is about facing fire so that the country’s citizens would live in peace.”
Besides, she added: “My husband’s first child is like his father. He is brave and fearless. He will join the force and fight like his father.”
Mrs. Florence, wife of Sgt. Hosea Jacob, lives directly opposite the squadron along Lafia Road. She told our reporter that she watches her husband’s colleagues going to and returning from work every morning and evening, with anxiety for her husband’s return.
“Every day I watch my husband’s colleagues leave for work and close. It worries me,” she said.
This is just as Ramatu Safiyyanu, wife of Cpl. Salwani Safiyyanu, said on phone from Hadeija in Jigawa State, where the missing cop was mobilised from, that she was missing washing and starching her husband’s uniform.
“I want my husband to come back. I am missing cooking and waiting for him to return from work. I miss washing and starching his uniform,” Mrs. Safiyyanu said.