Nine out of the 102 Gamboru-Ngala, Borno State IDPs reportedly abducted by Boko Haram terrorists while fetching firewood in the bush, Sunday, March 4, have returned home.
While media reports confirmed by locals that the young IDPs were abducted by the terrorists, with further confirmation by the UN which condemned the abduction of over 200 IDPs, Borno State Government dismissed the abduction narrative, arguing that they only lost their way back home from the wilderness.
“In fact, we don’t even believe that they were abducted,” Dr. Barkindo Mohammed Saidu, the Director-General, Borno SEMA, who led the state government fact-finding team to Ngala immediately after the reported abduction, had told newsmen in Maiduguri, Friday, March 8.
He had argued, “We believe they only lost their way back home, not abducted, because if they were abducted, the abductors would have, by now, called for ransom; but nobody has called anybody for any ransom yet.”
As at Sunday, March 10, no authority gave any hint about the abductors quoting any ransom for the release of the abductees who the Borno government still firmly believes they only lost their way back home.
“We have been reliably informed that nine out of the ‘missing’ IDPs traced their way back to the camp last Friday, March 8,” Dr. Saidu said Sunday, March 10, adding, “officials at Ngala have been instructed to mount an intensive and extensive vigilance to inform us about any trickling number returning.”
The Borno SEMA helmsman said “You would have observed that the state government restrained all along from quoting any number because we know the IDPs very well, because we are the ones managing their affairs; they are economical with the truth.”
Saidu explained, “We don’t believe the IDPs on this abduction narrative and the number of those they said were abducted; the IDPs are not trustworthy.
“There is no trust between them (IDPs) and government and between them and NGOs; there is even no trust among themselves; if it is about food and other essential commodities distribution, or they want to raise public sympathy for them among the public, they exaggerate numbers; if it is about anything they don’t want, like immunization, they reduce numbers.”
He added, “This is why we don’t even believe the abduction story and the various numbers quoted.”
Our correspondent could not immediately reach the 7 Division spokesman, Lt. Col. Ajemusu Jingina for the military update about the IDPs.
