How Damaturu hosted Maiduguri’s ‘immigrants’

Between Sunday, July 9, and Wednesday, July 13, 2011, Damaturu was a Mecca of sorts as it witnessed a mass influx of people.  Thanks for the gradual restoration of peace in Maiduguri which has brought to a halt, the outward movement of people as many of those in Damaturu have started going back to their […]

Between Sunday, July 9, and Wednesday, July 13, 2011, Damaturu was a Mecca of sorts as it witnessed a mass influx of people.  Thanks for the gradual restoration of peace in Maiduguri which has brought to a halt, the outward movement of people as many of those in Damaturu have started going back to their homes.

 

However, while the panic travelling lasted, people were seen being conveyed to Damaturu in different types of vehicles mostly trailers. They moved along with their luggages, children and domestic animals like chicken, goats and sheep.

This had tremendously increased the population of the Yobe State capital thereby making vehicular movement very difficult even though the development had to greater extent, spurred social and economic activities in the once sleepy city. Hafsat Isah, a resident of Bulumkutu Kasuwa, Maiduguri, told Sunday Trust that she migrated to Damaturu in order to avoid the tragic situation she found herself while in Maiduguri. “We left our houses with all our belongings and none of us have any idea of where to take refuge,” Hafsat said.

“While on our way, my two children cried profusely because of hunger and when we reached Damaturu, another problem set in. We went through another stop and search screening by security agents at the Damaturu City gate,” she recounted.

“We were asked to come down from the trailer, raise up our hands and trek to pass through the military checkpoint before we boarded the trailer again,” she explained. Hafsat was looking helplessly at her two children, seemingly tired as she wondered about where to stay. She left her house and fled, looking for sanctuary in an unknown destination while her husband was nowhere to be found.

As she spoke to this reporter, tears were rolling down her cheeks but she pretended to her 12-year-old son that things were alright.   Another refugee who gave her name as Hauwa Sani who looked helpless, said she does not know the where about of her husband.

“I carried my children and entered a trailer to Damaturu. We are really suffering here… I don’t have relations. I had to go to the Damaturu motor park to beg for money to buy food for myself and my little children,”

“Government should do something serious to stop the Borno crises. People have deserted the town,” she lamented.

Salamatu Abubakar, a resident of Custain in Maiduguri, alleged that her husband was killed in her presence and their house was set ablaze when the military taskforce cordoned their area after a bomb blast

“My husband was at home when the bomb exploded and the military raided our area and conducted a house to house search. I remember that he hid under my bed when they were about coming into our house,” she recalled,

“And when they entered and asked about my husband, I refused to disclose his whereabouts but as they were interrogating me, he came out.”

“On seeing him, one of them asked, ‘why did you hide yourself? And before he provided an answer, they shot him dead,” she said and instantly started crying.

As the women kept on recounting their ordeals at Kaleri in London Ciki in Maiduguri where the wind of the massive fleeing was triggered, more people were seen coming down from heavily loaded trailers.

Many were seen at Gashua road round-about, Damaturu, with most of them confused where to take refuge. Some of them were seen squatting in mosques and other public places. Malam Isah Bulama was found sleeping in an open mosque at Maiduguri road. He said he ran out of Maiduguri for his dear life. “It’s better to die in this mosque than to face the tragedy we witnessed recently in Maiduguri. I will not go back to Maiduguri until normalcy returns,” he vowed. For the well-to-do fleeing families who relocated to Damaturu, they are battling with an increase in house rent by almost 50 percent.

Some retired civil servants who sold their government allocated houses while serving in Yobe State and relocated to Maiduguri have now become tenants.

Our correspondent reports that general standard of living in Damaturu has become too expensive as a result of the new lease of life.

Food vendors, recharge card sellers and dealers in mats had a field day.

Malam Ibrahim Ustaz, an estate agent in Damaturu told Sunday Trust that the influx of people is making rent too expensive in Damaturu. “A house of N100,000 is now about N150,000, and virtually all the houses under my care have been rented. What surprises me most is how people occupied the red bricks housing estate located along Maiduguri road.” A visit to Sunday market in Damaturu revealed an increase in commodity prices by almost 20 percent and most of the Igbos who sell spare parts and building materials around motor park have closed their shops, which made the spare parts and other building materials more expensive in the town. However, Texaco junction in Potiskum, one of the cosmopolitan towns of the state, shows high number of migrants and refugees, even the number of commercial Motorcycle riders have increased. Mohammed Musa a refugee from Maiduguri revealed that, “life has completely changed for me. I am a tailor in Maiduguri well patronised by my customers but my House has been burnt. I do not know the whereabouts of my family because I left for my shop one day when my wife called me on phone that some people have invaded the house, she managed to run out. Later when I called her line it was not going through. As I return to the House, it was burnt into ashes. I managed to escape to Potiskum, I sleep by the road side and eat from remnants of passengers.”

A security source who pleaded anonymity, told Sunday Trust that the security outfits had made efforts to curtail influx of bad eggs through checking of all passing vehicles as well as surveillance of the movement of the strangers. “We have put machineries in place to monitor the movement of strangers trooping into Damaturu daily, and we will leave no stone unturned. Army, police and all other security personnel have been dispatched in uniforms and plain-cloth across the major towns of the state,” he said. It was learnt that the Yobe State had provided relief materials to the fleeing people but all efforts by our correspondent to contact government officials to comment on the matter proved abortive as most of them declined comments due to the seriousness of the matter.

“I cannot comment on anything that relates to Boko Haram”, a source said.

On its part, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said it had distributed relief materials to the victims of the crisis.

A statement from Ibrahim Farinloye, NEMA’s spokesman in the north east which was made available to newsmen,  said  relief materials were given to 140 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Gidan Lawane, Maya Kyariri community of Mafa Local Government Area of Borno State.

The statement said 245 families who fled from their homes now stay at the central mosque, located at Jimtiro in Maiduguri Metropolitan Council (MMC).

The statement added that similar camps have been identified in Damaturu, Potiskum, in Yobe State as well as Auno and Konduga Local Government Areas in Borno State.

“The camps have varying population of between 200 and 500 families,” the statement said.

The statement said relief material given to the IDPs include blankets, mosquito nets, rice, beans, detergent, soap, wax prints, among others.

“NEMA in collaboration with the Federal Neuro Psychiatric Hospital, Maiduguri, is considering applying psycho-social and trauma treatment of severe cases of post-disaster trauma related incidence identified in the camps,” the statement said.

In the last few days, people were seen gradually going back to their homes in Maiduguri and like the tortoise, Damaturu is retreating back into its sleepy shell.