IT is the second largest town in Adamawa State, and also a major commercial centre in the state. Mubi is also a town in agony. When it fell to Boko Haram insurgents, the invaders killed many of the residents. Several thousands were displaced, many taking refuge anywhere they found it, including the hills while some ran across the border into Cameroon. From there, some returned to Nigeria through safe routes but finding shelter in other states of the federation.
Some of the displaced are sheltering in Kaduna State. They are bruised but are united by a common desire to live and tell their story and hopefully recover their town from the invaders and rebuild it. They live with relatives and new friends.
Thirteen-year-old Salamatu Muhammad is one of those who managed to find their way to Kaduna. For her, life will never be the same again. The horror of jumping over corpses in the bush will forever remain in the subconscious of the Primary Six pupil. Narrating how she and seven of her relatives managed to escape from the town when the Boko Haram insurgents attacked, the little girl wept uncontrollably.
“When they invaded the town, we all separated,” she said. “I have since parted ways with my father and some of my junior brothers and sisters. My mother took us to the bush from Mubi to Maiha and my brother picked us up in his car to Yola, Kano and finally Kaduna. We have an extended family, but only seven of us are in Kaduna. Even though she is happy that they escaped unhurt, the fact that she does not know the whereabouts of her father breaks her heart.
She told The Nation: “When we call my father’s number it doesn’t go through. I jumped over many corpses and many sick people in the bush while leaving Mubi. In my life, I have never seen a live snake, but I saw many and took to my heels inside the bush”.
Like Salamatu, 10-year-old Abdulmalik Abdullahi also told a sad tale. He had gone out with his elder brother and were welcomed back home by the shooting of the Boko Haram insurgents.
He told The Nation: “We were on our way coming back home when we heard gunshots. So we started running. We didn’t go home again, so we decide to run for our lives. We ran to Gumbi; from there we moved to Kaduna. It was like a war movie I used to watch. We ran in-between bullets to escape to the bush, in fact, I never thought we could survive it”.
The little boy claimed to have seen young men who could not be more than 20 years old among members of Boko Haram who invaded their town, saying “their age didn’t really matter to us, because they were in control of sophisticated weapons. We had to run. We (me and my sister) trekked to Gumbi. We spent one night in the bush. We walked both day and night, no food to eat. It was when we got to a village that they gave us food to eat. We then left for a place where we boarded a vehicle to Kaduna.”
The two kids are part of the many people that managed to escape from the clutches of the insurgents who invaded Mubi, the second largest town in Adamawa state recently. Many of them spent several days in the bush before help came their way. Many others could not make it out of the town or out of the bush, while the whereabout of many others remain unknown to their families. Many have questioned the ease with which the insurgents took over Mubi with Nigerian soldiers stationed there abandoning their duty posts and weapons shortly before the arrival of the rag-tag insurgents. Local hunters from the area have mobilised and retaken the town from the insurgents.
Jamila Mohammed, 25, a resident of Kaduna had gone to Mubi to visit her sick father when the insurgents came calling and according to her, she found herself in a Cameroonian village while fleeing from the insurgents.
She told The Nation: “My mother asked me to visit my father who has been down. I was already in Mubi for a week, taking care of my father and he was already recovering. So, on that fateful day, we were walking when we saw people running helter-skelter. It was after that time I received a call from my mother asking me if I’m aware of what is happening in town. She asked me to quickly go back home. We were on our way when we saw some persons numbering about four of them trying to barricade the road. We were allowed to go through. On getting home, I saw my dad seriously ill with leg pain. Initially we thought it was a minor sickness. We heard gunshots as they were shooting. Then, my uncle carried us in his car. When the gunshot was much, we had to abandon the car and enter the forest for safety. We spent three days in the dangerous forest. Luckily, after trekking for days, we eventually got a truck used to convey cow that agreed to help us. We were charged N1,000. Fortunately, I was holding a mobile phone. I sold it to pay for our transport fare. The three days inside the forest was like hell. We walked day and night without food or water. At a stage, we got unclean water in a village and they sold it for N20 per bottle. The cow truck conveyed us to a village in Cameroon where we slept. The following day, we were conveyed to another village and later moved to a border between Nigeria and Cameroon. We crossed through a river and later boarded a car that took us to Jakilamba and eventually found ourselves in Yola. So I called my mother who sent me some money for transport back to Kaduna”.
Jamila had to abandon his father along the way apparently not to compound his health situation and she is happy that she took that decision saying “he is in a village called Kauyen Kabila. I called him yesterday and I was told he is doing fine”. She claimed that most members of the insurgents are young men. She said “They are young boys. Some of them look like Fulani and the others like Burgo. They were shooting sporadically and killing people”. She expressed appreciation to Pastor Buru who has found it necessary to present relief materials to many of them who were able to find their way to Kaduna, saying that, he was the first to come and visit them and the first to give them any form of relief material. “We are grateful with the gesture by Pastor Yohanna Buru”.
However, while in Kaduna, they have found a saviour in one Pastor Yohanna Baru, coordinator of the Peace Reconciliation and Revival Foundation. Pastor Yohanna Buru became the first person to visit and donate relief materials to them.
Traumatized, many of them could not hold back tears especially when asked about the other members of their family. The clergyman lamented the successes being gained by the insurgents, adding that the Boko Haram insurgency appeared to be beyond the control of the government. He said “the government said it has entered a ceasefire pact. But the reverse is the case as Shekau denied that there was no ceasefire pact. We are under a government but yet they can’t come out to tell us the truth. We believe what Shekau said is the truth and it is evident in the recent happenings. I am begging Shekau for God sake, because of his believe (Imani), his prophet and the holy Qur’an. He should have mercy on Nigerians and not for the sake of government. He should please for God sake have mercy on innocent Nigerians. The government had said the abducted Chibok girls would be released on Monday and this is three weeks after nothing has changed. I am a Christian and a Nigerian and we have to be our bothers’ keeper because the Boko haram would not discriminate between Muslim or Christian when they strike. That is why I am calling on government and other individuals to come to the aid of these vulnerable children now in Sabon Tasha Millennium City in Chikun Local Government, Tudun Wada in Kaduna South local Government, Malali in Kaduna North Local Government and Rigasa in Igabi local government. I call on all to assist these people, as Nigeria belongs to all of us”.
