Senator Zannah: Borno Govt, Military are Lying About Bama

Shettima cancels trips to UK, Sudan, state govt insists town is under control of Nigerian troops

• Insurgents seize another town in Yobe

By Michael Olugbode  

The senator representing Borno Central at the National Assembly, Ahmed Zannah, has challenged both the Borno State Government and military authorities to take the media to Bama to verify their claims that the state’s second largest town had not been captured by the Boko Haram insurgents.

The senator in a telephone chat yesterday with THISDAY said: “As I am speaking to you, Bama has been captured and the insurgents are on the prowl for any male, killing at will.”
He added: “Everyone is a target as long as you are male. But for now, women and children are being spared.”

Recounting a personal loss, Zannah said he lost two nephews to the insurgents, who according to him, captured Bama on Tuesday.
He said: “They entered my brother’s house in Bama and shot his two sons they met at the residence.”
Zannah, who is an indigene of Bama, 78 kilometres from Maiduguri, said: “Both the military and Borno State Government are lying to Nigerians, and to prove that I am the one misinforming the public, they should take journalists to the town to cross-check the facts.”

Zannah on Tuesday morning granted an interview to the BBC stating that Bama had fallen to the terrorist group.

However, the state government and youth vigilante group swiftly dismissed his claim, stating that Nigerian troops were in control of the town and that his statement was politically motivated.

However, as the uncertainty over the true state of affairs in Bama continued yesterday, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said it had registered 26,391 internally displaced persons (IDPs) as a result of the attack on the town.

Responding to enquiries by THISDAY, the North-east information officer of the agency, Mallam AbdulKadir Ibrahim, said the influx into Maiduguri from Bama and neighbouring villages as a result of the attack on Bama stood at 26,391 at the last count.

Ibrahim said the number was growing by the hour, as there were still people trooping into Maiduguri from Bama and neighbouring villages of Konduga and Kawuri.

He said the agency had started making arrangements to ensure that they are camped in Maiduguri and provided with adequate relief materials.

Also, in reaction to Monday’s renewed attack by Boko Haram on some parts of Borno State, Governor Kashim Shettima yesterday returned to Nigeria, cutting short his official trip to Sudan and the United Kingdom where he had scheduled assessment meetings with school authorities on the over 70 students recently sponsored by the state government to study medicine and petroleum geo-sciences.

A statement by his media aide, Isa Gusau, said the governor “returned and held crucial meetings in Abuja in connection with events in Bama and the rest of the state.

“He also approved the formation and release of funds to a committee set up to coordinate the distribution of relief materials and management of victims”.

The governor, the statement said, was scheduled to return to Maiduguri yesterday despite heightened fears about planned attacks on the state capital by the Boko Haram insurgents “who had never hidden their desperation to hit the city in retaliation for their forceful eviction by soldiers and citizen-volunteers in 2013”.

It added that Shettima returned mainly to provide the needed leadership, be with his people, build public confidence, coordinate relief for victims, and step up co-funding and psychological support for the military.

The governor left Nigeria on Sunday night and was scheduled to meet officials at a university in Sudan where 50 female citizens of the state are undergoing state-sponsored degree programmes in medicine under the state Female Medical Education/Intervention Programme designed to train abroad 300 female doctors in five years.

Shettima was also meant to travel to the UK to meet 20 students undergoing petroleum geo-sciences, in addition to signing agreements for other human capacity development programmes.

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