The Director Public Health at the Yobe State Ministry of Health, Dr. Hauwa Larai Goni, has disclosed that a total of 22 health workers lost their lives with 60 health facilities destroyed during the peak of Boko Haram insurgency.
The director made the disclosure at a one day workshop on improving access to healthcare services in post conflicts setting leads to building a resilient health system in Yobe State held, yesterday in Damaturu, the state capital.
She added that, over 300 health were also displaced during the period.
“A total of 90 health workers were attacked, 22 were killed, over 300 were displaced while 60 facilities were completely destroyed during the insurgency”, Goni said.
She noted that curfews, ban on motorcycles and GSM services cut-off for 6 months among others hindered access to healthcare delivery in the state.
The director, however, pointed out that responsive policies, resources flow, developing institutional and individual capacities, livelihood support as well as community coercion were some the resilience and recovery methods adopted in reversing the ugly trend.
The state deputy governor, who is also the Chairman of the Task Force on Immunization and Primary Healthcare, Idi Barde Guban, represented by Alhaji Baba Ali, said the activities of the insurgents have resulted in the destruction of 1098 of public buildings and private properties including healthcare facilities in the state.
The workshop has a theme: “improving access to healthcare services in post-conflict setting: a case of Yobe State health system resilience.”
But in Sokoto State, unknown gunmen numbering about 150 reportedly stormed Tarana Mahuta and Bagurba villages, Tureta Local Government Area, and made away with undisclosed number of cows at gunpoint.
The Sokoto State Police Command confirmed the attack and the rustling of the cows, but refused to mention the number of those alleged to have been killed in Tureta.
The confirmation came from the Sokoto Command PPRO, ASP Muhammad Abubakar Sadiq, in a two-paragraph statement issued, yesterday, 24 hours after the attack that took place in the early hours of last Monday.
According to the statement, “Unknown gunmen numbering about 150 stormed Tarana Mahuta and Bagurba villages of Tureta Local Government Area, carted away undisclosed number of cows from the villagers at gunpoint.
“The state command has intensified patrols along the axis, and deployed special trailing forces with a view to retrieving all that was made away with.”
Information gathered, however, indicated that the bandits ransacked villages in Tureta, killed the villagers after stealing foodstuffs and cows.
However, a civil rights group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has condemned the reported gruesome killing of nine soldiers by suspected armed bandits in Zamfara State.
HURIWA charged Zamfara State Governor, Bello Matawalle, to pay the sum of N900million compensation for the soldiers killed by the bandits in the state.
The rights group gave the call while reasserting its rejection to the negotiations by Northern governors with armed bandits in Zamfara, Katsina and Niger states.
It would be recalled that armed bandits killed nine soldiers in an attack last weekend in an area reportedly wracked by cattle rustling and kidnappings.
However, HURIWA’s National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko directly linked the “killings of soldiers by armed bandits to the atmosphere of illegality, anarchy and impunity created by the negotiations and decision to grant amnesty to armed mass killers by some Northern state governors.
In a statement made available to newsmen, yesterday, Onwubiko said it was “absolutely wrong to permit a situation whereby armed freelance hoodlums are treated like sacred cows which has now snowballed into the mindless slaughter of our armed soldiers trained professionally with huge public and taxpayers’ fund.”
The rights group insisted that such killings must never be swept under the carpet.
Describing the negotiations and granting of amnesty to armed bandits as an affront to the Nigerian constitution, the rights group condemned the killing of soldiers by armed bandits.
It tasked the Zamfara State governor and Federal Government to arrest, prosecute and punish the killers of the soldiers.
“Negotiating with criminals under any guise by state governors is tantamount to defecating openly on top of the Nigerian constitution and the fact that the cocktails of coordinated mass killings by armed bandits in parts of Zamfara State and other northern states have continued unabated shows that it is foolhardy for elected officials to fail to enforce relevant laws against terrorism and mass murders.”
The right group also called on Nigerians of goodwill to speak up in rejection of the “institutionalization of impunity and official recklessness exhibited in the ongoing negotiations with armed bandits by northern governors.
“We demand that the Zamfara State Government be compelled to pay N100million compensation each to all the soldiers killed by armed bandits in Zamfara State.”
Meanwhile, troops of 7 Division Nigeria Army have rescued 27 persons displaced by insurgents in Borno State.
A statement by the Nigerian Army Operations Media Coordinator, Colonel Aminu Iliyasu, yesterday, said that the first clearance was carried out by Operation Lafiya Dole Theatre, troops of 7 Division Garrison in conjunction with troops of Sector 1 Operation Lafiya Dole and elements of Nigerian Army Super Camp 4 along Goni Gambomi, Kadamari, Melim, Gondori and Jantilu in Kaga LGA of Borno State.
Iliyasu stated that the troops rescued 15 persons, comprising eight adult males, one adult female, and six children.
He said after interrogation, they revealed that they spent three days wandering in the bush, trying to link up with any community where they could find succour.
“Preliminary investigation reveals that they spent three days wandering in the bush trying to link up with any community where they could find succour.
“They were promptly evacuated and the adult females and children were handed over to NYSC IDP Camp while the adult males were handed over to 7 Military Intelligence Brigade for profiling and subsequent integration into the IDP Camp.”
Similarly, troops of 82 Division Task Force Battalion at Strong Response Area while conducting clearance operations.
The statement added that in Ngoshe and Pulka general area in Gwoza LGA of Borno State troops also rescued 12 locals.
They were later screened, documented and handed over to officials of the International Organization for Migrants at Pulka IDP Camp.