Your Romance With Terrorists Pushing Us To Join Boko Haram, IDPs Tell FG

The Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from Kuchingworo and Durumi camps in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, have threatened to join Boko Haram should Federal Government continue to romance with repentant terrorists and ignore them who are the victims of terrorists’ attacks.
They issued the threat at the public presentation of the report, “Managing Internal Displacement Crisis in Nigeria”, held in Abuja, yesterday.
One of the IDPs from Kuchingworo camp, who pleaded anonymity, accused the Federal Government of being biased for prioritizing rehabilitation of the repentant Boko Haram insurgents, and abandoning their victims to nurse the wounds.
The IDP, who said he lost his father, mother and all his siblings to the blooding tasty Boko Haram before his escape, said IDPs in his camp are not only abandoned but discriminated against by the society, wondering why the government would stop free medical treatment and other provisions made available to them in past only to turn attention to the same Boko Haram that had and still causing the country so much pains.
‘‘I am worried that government would start rehabilitating what they called repentant Boko Haram and abandon us their victims in the IDP camp to suffer hunger and deprivation. If that is how it wants it, we will be compelled to join Boko Haram so that government can pay attention to us.
‘‘I lost my father and all members of my family to Boko Haram before I escaped to this camp and see my life, the government can’t pay attention to me but it can rehabilitate repentant Boko Haram.
‘‘The society is also our problem because they discriminate against us. A German offered to take me abroad, but I was denied visa at German embassy because I am an IDP. Some of us have skills and are hardworking but because we found ourselves in IDP camp, the society treats us as if we are nobody,’’ he lamented.
Apart from the obvious deprivation and hunger in the camp, Yohanna said IDPs in his camp no longer have access to government medical facility as they were made to sell their food items to raise fund for their medical bills.
He warned that most IDPs would be compelled to join Boko Haram, if the government does not change its approach and cater for them.
Another IDP from Durumi camp, who also preferred not to be mentioned, said most IDPs in the camp had been recruited into drug trafficking because they were vulnerable and neglected by government.
Meanwhile, the Senator representing Southern Borno and Chairman Senate Committee on Army, Ali Ndume, has said the report credited to him that 70 elders were killed in his community in Gwoza Local Government Area by Boko Haram sect happened more than five or six years ago, and not a fresh attack as being insinuated in some quarters.
Ndume made the clarification to newsmen, yesterday, in an interview in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.
It would be recalled that the senator was among his colleagues (Senate Committee on Special Duties and North East Development Commission) who visited Maiduguri, last Wednesday, where they paid a courtesy visit to Governor Babagana Umara Zulum, in which Ndume, in the process of memories, told the gathering that “there was a time when Boko Haram slaughtered 70 of his elder-statesmen at one of the abattoirs in Gwoza within one day”.
He expressed worry that some newspapers misquoted him and made the statement breaking news.
Ndume said, “I am surprised to see some national dailies reported today (Thursday) or misquoted me as if it’s a new attack that happened to my elders.
“Yes, during our visit to Borno State, and in one of our fora/gatherings, I told them that there was a day, even before Gwoza was made a Caliphate of the Boko Haram sect, 70 elders in Gwoza alone were slaughtered.
“I want to clarify that this statement on the attack is not a fresh one, but belated as it happened a few years ago.
“In fact, I can recall vividly that you were among those who published report of the 70 elders killed which is more than five years ago now, and so is not breaking news as being erroneously reported, but I will reiterate it is belated”, Ndume clarified.