BEVERLY HILLS, March 21, (THEWILL) – Better days are surely ahead for heroes of the Boko Haram insurgency in Borno State as the state government on Saturday promised to immortalise them by naming an estate after them.
The State Governor, Alhaji Kashim Shettima, made the disclosure at the inauguration of the Yerwa Peace Estate, a-432 unit of houses for the resettlement of insurgency victims of Bulabulin-Ngarnam community in Maiduguri, the state capital.
“The Yerwa Peace Estate we are about commissioning today, is a product of destructions as a result of the insurgency. From 2010 or thereabout, Boko Haram Insurgents quietly began to dislodge residents of Bulabulin-Ngarnam, silently killing those who resisted them.
“They took over houses of innocent persons after chasing owners. Over two years of the occupation, they turned the area to their silent headquarters in Maiduguri. They dug improvised tunnels that connected houses and created underground armoury, stockpiled with riffles and explosive devices.
“They dug holes on walls and fences of houses in the entire community, like a chain, such that after murderous attacks and they were being chased by security agencies, once they ran into any house, they could pass through the holes they punched on walls and fences to connect to over twenty or more houses to beat their trailers and in some cases, trap and kill their trailers. That was the wisdom of evil,” the governor stated at the occasion.
According to Shettima, “In 2013, our gallant Joint Military Task Force with superior wisdom discovered Bulabulin-Ngarnam through diligent intelligence gathering. And with the brave support of other security agencies and our youth volunteers, made up of our own sons, Boko Haram insurgents were dislodged from Bulabulin-Ngarnam by the military. That glorious feat brought to an end, Boko Haram’s communal existence in Maiduguri which used to be their coordinating point.
“This administration thought it wise to resettle innocent persons whose houses were affected in the occupation by Boko Haram which gave rise to the houses being brought down. The State Government has since directed a Committee set up for allocation of these houses, to also ensure that the entire community of Bulabulin-Ngarnam was fumigated with the right chemicals to prevent outbreak of diseases given the fact that the community was left for years and to also clear the area and make it habitable so that those whose houses were not affected could return to normal lives. I have been reliably informed that the cleaning has been effected and we have guarantee that the community if free of mines.”
Speaking further, the governor said: “We are gathered here today because some soldiers, policemen, DSS and Civilian JTF fought Boko Haram and in the process laid down their lives so we all come gather on a day like this, without fear that insurgents occupy Bulabulin-Ngarnam. People gave their lives so we can have peace. The least we can do is to assist their survivors and immortalise them.
“Starting from next week, we are going to build an estate like this which we shall call ‘Borno Heroes Estate’. Houses in that estate will after thorough considerations, allocated to families of soldiers, policemen, DSS, Immigration, Customs and the Civilian JTF, who are found to be in need of shelter and who are desirous of living in Maiduguri.
“We won’t care about the fact some of our fallen heroes in the military and other security agencies were employees of the Federal Government, we will not care about their state of origin, after all; they served and died for Borno. Once a family is in need and want to live in Maiduguri, they should be entitled so long as their bread winner fought and died for Borno. We will however place emphasis on those that went to battle fronts, died and left behind children and other helpless dependants.”
Lamenting the damage done by the insurgency, Shettima said: “They have cruelly slaughtered their own brothers and sisters, shot and bombed thousands of people, destroyed our communities and turned thousands of people out of their ancestral homes to become homeless and converted otherwise wealthy rural dwelling importers and exporters, farmers, transporters, traders and many other kinds of business men to become absolutely poor overnight.
“They have turned thousands of givers into beggars. They have destroyed not just communities but also burnt down Mosques even when they claim to be fighting for Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala. Their own kind of Jihad has no exception to women, children and the old which runs contrary to Prophetic traditions like we all have been thought about Islamic history.”
“Only yesterday, the media reported that they even slaughtered the women they forcefully used as their companions. The women they shared their times with, the women they even said they had married. They have killed stuffed dead bodies into wells, contaminating water when in Islam, digging wells is categorised as one of the topmost ways of earning everlasting rewards. They serially brought down hospitals, Islamic and western Schools, killed and maimed Islamic scholars and teachers, brought down houses including in some cases, setting an entire community ablaze, all in the name of our peaceful, loving, gracious and merciful God.”
