News: People of Bama, Gworza, Flee as Boko Haram Threatens Fresh Attacks

Boko Haram Group

Boko Haram insurgents recently dislodged
from their camps in the Sambisa Game
Reserve in Borno State by the military Joint
Task Force (JTF) have regrouped to unleash
more terror on the residents of the area.
The regrouped insurgents were said to have
sacked Bama and Gwoza towns completely
over the weekend, leaving thousands of
residents fleeing their homes for safety.
Some of the residents fleeing the fresh attacks
arrived Maiduguri, the state capital, yesterday
through Dikwa via Muna road . Narrating their
ordeal, they said they had to pay N7,000
each to be transported to Maiduguri instead of
the normal N300 fare, since the Maiduguri-
Bama-Gwoza road has been rendered
impassable because it has been blocked by
the JTF since the beginning of the emergency
rule.
They also disclosed that the insurgents had
been moving from house to house, issuing
threat letters that all civil servants and
Christians must leave Bama before seven
days, or risk their lives.
The last bloody attack carried out by Boko
Haram in Bama left over 40 policemen, 13
prison warders, three soldiers, 10 Boko Haram
suspects and several civilians dead while
Police Barracks and Mobile Police formations,
including the offices of the Area Commander
and the Police Divisional Officer were
completely razed.
Meanwhile, the Christian Association of
Nigeria (CAN) in the 19 northern states and
the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has
described statements credited to President
Goodluck Jonathan to the effect that Muslims
were the major victims of the Boko Haram
insurgency in the North as unfortunate and a
veiled attempt to distort the facts.
President Jonathan was said to have been
quoted in a newspaper (not THISDAY) that the
Boko Haram Islamic sect has killed more
Muslims than Christians in the North. But the
spokesman of CAN in the 19 northern states,
Mr. Sunday Oibe, in a statement yesterday in
Kaduna, said if it is true that the President
actually made such assertion, then it is
misleading and unacceptable.
According to him, the purported statement by
the President is highly disappointing
considering the fact that Christians, their
churches and businesses have been the major
targets of the Boko Haram terror group.
The statement reads in part: “Our attention
has been drawn to a purported claim by
President Goodluck Jonathan that the Boko
Haram insurgents in the north killed more
Muslims than Christians and that it is not a
religious issue.”