The director-general of the Borno State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) , Dr . Barkindo Mohammed Saidu yesterday confirmed the return of nine internally displaced persons (IDPs) out of the 102 female IDPs abducted by the Boko Haram terrorists last Sunday in Ngala, the headquarters of Gamboru Ngala local government area of Borno State.
While media reports confirmed by locals said that the female IDPs were abducted by Boko Haram, with further confirmation by the UN, which condemned the abduction of over 200 IDPs, the Borno State government dismissed the abduction narrative, arguing that they only lost their way back home from the wilderness.
“In fact, we don’t even believe that they were abducted,” Dr. Barkindo Mohammed Saidu, the director-general, Borno SEMA, who led the state government fact-finding team to Ngala immediately after the reported abduction, told newsmen in Maiduguri, Friday, March 8.
He had argued: “We believe they only lost their way back home, not abducted, because if they were abducted, the abductors would have, by now, called for ransom, but nobody has called anybody for any ransom yet.”
“We have been reliably informed that nine out of the ‘missing’ IDPs traced their way back to the camp last Friday, March 8,” Dr. Saidu revealed on Sunday, adding, “Officials at Ngala have been instructed to mount an intensive and extensive vigilance to inform us about any trickling number returning.
“You would have observed that the state government restrained all along from quoting any number because we know the IDPs very well because we are the ones managing their affairs; they are economical with the truth.”
“We don’t believe the IDPs in this abduction narrative and the number of those they said were abducted; the IDPs are not trustworthy.
“There is no trust between them (IDPs) and government and between them and NGOs. There is even no trust among themselves; if it is about food and other essential commodities distribution, or they want to raise public sympathy for them among the public, they exaggerate numbers. If it is about anything they don’t want, like immunisation, they reduce numbers. This is why we don’t even believe the abduction story and the numbers quoted.”