No ransom demand on kidnapped Borno girls, 9 returned – SEMA

The Borno State Emergency Management Agency said, on Sunday, that nine out of the 102 female Internally Displaced Persons reportedly abducted by  Boko Haram terrorists on March 4 have returned home.

The women were reportedly abducted last week Sunday at Gamboru-Ngala when they went out of the IDP camp in search of firewood in the bush.

While residents put the figure of the missing women at 102,  the United Nations said over 200 women were abducted.

The Borno SEMA Director-General, Dr Barkindo  Saidu, in an interview with The According on Sunday said there was information that nine of the women had returned.

“We have been reliably informed that nine out of the ‘missing’ IDPs traced their way back to the camp last Friday, March 8,”  Saidu said, adding, “Officials at Ngala have been instructed to mount an intensive and extensive vigilance to inform us about any trickling number returning.”

The SEMA DG had earlier dismissed the abduction narrative, arguing that the women only lost their way back home from the wilderness.

“In fact, we don’t even believe that they were abducted,” Saidu said on Friday when he led the state government  fact-finding team to Ngala immediately after the reported abduction.

Saidu argued that if the women were truly abducted, their captors would have reached out, asking for ransom.

“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 believe they (the women) 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 don’t believe the IDPs on this abduction narrative and the number of those they said were abducted; the IDPs are not trustworthy.”

The SEMA DG accused the IDPs of playing politics with the issue.

“There is no trust between them and the 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 themselves, 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 various numbers quoted.”

The According could not immediately reach the 7 Division spokesman, Lt. Col. Ajemusu Jingina, for a military update about the IDPs.

Meanwhile, the Jama’atu Nasril Islam had called on the Federal Government to arrest and prosecute the perpetrators of abductions at Ngala IDP camp, in Borno and Kuriga in Kaduna State.

The Secretary-General of JNI, Prof. Khalid  Aliyu, made the call in a statement on Saturday in Kaduna.

Aliyu said, “We also urge the government most especially the Office of the National Security Adviser and Director-General, Department of State Security to, as a matter of national interest and stability, do more to prosecute all the perpetrators of heinous crimes against humanity.

“Taking into account recent most unfortunate abductions at Ngala IDP camp, Borno State and Government Secondary School Kuriga and Kuriga Primary School in Kaduna State, as well as taking appropriate action against informants and their cohorts.”