We all thought that the insurgency has finally come to an end with the declarartion of the state of emergency in some Northern State, but the reports we are getting from people who as recently as yesterday succeeded in fleeing the trouble zone indicates that the Nigerian Government still have a lot to do in winning this battle as the Boko Haram insurgents in Borno State, dislodged by security forces in the wake of the emergency rule by President Goodluck Jonathan from their Sambisa Game Reserve camps, appear to be fighting back.
Reporters were made to understand, yesterday, that they have not only regrouped, they have also sacked at least two major towns (Bama and Gwoza) in the state.
One of the towns is Bama, where the insurgents struck in the weeks before Jonathan imposed the emergency rule in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states, killing 40 policemen, 13 prison warders, three soldiers and several civilians.
Bama and Gwoza, located along the Sambisa offshore, are said to be the strongholds of Boko Haram, the Islamist group fighting to impose Islamic values on Nigeria, a secular state, and campaigns against Western education.
Military forces, who launched a campaign against the insurgents, including air raids by the air force, following the emergency rule imposed in Borno, had claimed that the Boko Haram members had relocated to Mandara and Gwoza hills among others desert areas of Borno State.
But tales from fleeing Bama and Gwoza residents arriving Maiduguri, the state capital, yesterday, showed that the insurgents had regrouped and launched fresh attacks on Bama and Gwoza.
“The insurgents are moving from house to house, issuing threat letters that civil servants and Christians must leave Bama within seven days or risk their lives,” one of the Bama residents who arrived Maiduguri, yesterday.
It is believed that members of the public are being made to pay through their noses to be smuggled out of the area.
Those who escaped from Gwoza said the town had been taken over by Boko Haram insurgents while villagers at the hilly areas had crossed over to Cameroun Republic to escape the insurgents.
Mr. James John, a retired civil servant, whose brother in-law was said to have been shot dead by Boko Haram in Bama, on Thursday, told our correspondent: “When we took the body of my late in-law for burial to Gwoza, we were advised to leave town immediately after the burial to avoid any contact with the insurgents if we valued our lives.
“Gwoza has fallen to Boko Haram and unless there is military reinforcement in the area, I am afraid the insurgents will remain there indefinitely.” reporters efforts to reach the military authorities to comment on the twist in the emergency rule in Borno State, yesterday, were unsuccessful.
Meanwhile a volunteer youth group, tagged, ” Civilian JTF”, assisting the men of the Joint Task Force, ‘Operation Restore Order’, to subdue the Boko Haram insurgency in Borno, yesterday, embarked on “Operation Stop and Search” of vehicles in Maiduguri, a situation which led to the arrest of several sect members.
The youth, who carried cutlasses, knives and sticks, positioned in different locations, searching all vehicles including their engines, while the JTF personnel watched.
This came barely five days after one Abu Zinnira, who claimed to be spokesman for Boko Haram, said, in a statement emailed to newsmen, that they will launch a manhunt for the youth.
“We have established that youth in Borno and Yobe states are now against our cause. They have connived with security operatives and are actively supporting the government of Nigeria in its war against us. We have also resolved to fight back, ” Zinnira said.
However, some of the youth promised to fight Boko Haram, saying they were not deterred from
carrying out their mission.
One of the leaders of the youth group said, “What the Boko Haram said is an empty threat because terror, war of attrition and killing of innocent people with impunity is over. We have resolved to take our destiny in our hands and will continue hunting the insurgents.”