BORNO PEOPLE WERE HIDING BOKO HARAM FIGHTERS – ETSU NUPE MAKES SHOCKING REVELATIONS

The chairman, Niger State Council of Traditional Rulers and Etsu Nupe, Yahaya Abubakar, has narrated how some residents of Borno State formed the habit of hiding Boko Haram members from military personnel during the beginning of the insurgency.

The monarch, who is a former military officer, lamented that the behaviour of the Boko Haram collaborators compounded the present security situation in the country.

The Etsu Nupe, who stated this in an interview with Leadership ahead of his 19th anniversary and 70th birthday celebrations, expressed hope that with the military currently following non-state actors to their location, Nigerians will soon see improvement amid renewed efforts to tackle insecurity.

He said : “Actually, our troops are very determined and committed in doing this job, but because of mix up of who is who in this country, it has made the job very difficult and some people are even trying to blackmail or tarnish the image of the military and telling them that they are not doing anything but they are actually doing a lot but the nature of what they are facing is quite different.

“When Boko Haram started in Maiduguri, the military went there to quash it, but sentiment started coming in because some of the Boko Haram are inside the town and will come and stay with their family in the day and night they leave into the bush. So, when the military now discovered it, they resolved that the attacks were becoming too much and they were attacking military locations. So, they start tracking private homes, they will go into the homes and see if there are any Boko Haram members there and people start saying they are killing us while they are the ones killing themselves because they are hiding the criminals and military have no other alternative than to face any house or any suspected location, and that led to sentiment and sympathy to the Boko Haram, those who don’t even know about what was going on start joining them and saying that they are killing us.

” For now, the military is following them to their location and you will see that during this short time there will be differences.”

The monarch, who has shared his experience in helping to restore peace in Liberia, said the Nigeria’s scenario is different from what was obtainable in the West African country during its civil war.

” Actually, it is unfortunate that we are having this situation which is very tight because those people committing these crimes are within us. They plan their atrocities at night and mix with us during the day. In Liberia, your enemies are already defined, you know their camp and their location. In Liberia, when we finished the operation, disarming the rebels was very pertinent. So, they gave me a helicopter to locate them and have a peace talk with them.

” The fact is the helicopter could be shot down by the rebels and we would be dead by now, secondly, I could land there and they will not accept me, or there will be a fight and I would be shot. So, I prayed and entered their headquarters with seven of my men, and we landed there.

“First, they did not allow us to land there, telling us to go. I had to remove my white handkerchief waving it to them to show that we are for peace, when they saw it, they told me to come down and when we came down, they surrounded us and told us to drop our rifles and we gave them our rifles. So, I prayed inside my heart that God should send an idea. I had a big kola nut inside my pocket, I asked if they wanted a kola for peace talks. One needs to be careful, so, I break the kola and I bite it myself before giving them to bite too and they change their attitude and say we should come.

“They gave us back our rifles and we started talking with them while we were there, we faced some obstacles because, for the first time, they hide the functional rifles and brought out the wrong rifles and they handed it to us because for every rifle they surrender we give them $100 and they went and started bringing non-functional rifles.

“But, here, our situation here is too tight and that is why I find it difficult because parents are harbouring terrorists, criminals, that are relating with their wife’s brothers, sisters and talking with them and unfortunately mobile phones is also making operation difficult, because it is used to give out information and I think that they are a lot of loose ends in addressing this situation from the beginning.

“Loose ends in the sense that why this one is just like a normal police job, like internal security is a police job, you don’t know whether these people are arming themselves. The whole situation is very confusing because is it Boko Haram? Is it ISWAP? Is it kidnapping, or is it banditry? You know, they are all mixed. Having served in the military for this period of time I was wondering if I could go to Liberia and achieve a very possible peaceful situation. Why can’t we do it in Nigeria?”