FIVE days after Boko Haram terrorists seized
Mubi, the second largest town in Adamawa,
the insurgents are still holding on to the town
even as about 3,000 residents who managed
to escape have joined other internally
displaced persons at an NYSC camp in Yola.
Some of the survivors of the invasion have
also recounted their ordeals.
Most of them who ran for safety were
students of the Federal Polytechnic, Mubi.
Explaining her ordeal to Vanguard in Yola,
weekend, one of the students, Gift Ugo, a
Mass Communications undergraduate of the
Polytechnic from Abia State who said she
spent four days in the bush where she hid
from the prowling eyes of the insurgents said
it was a miracle that she escaped alive
President, American University of Nigeria
(AUN) Yola, Prof. Margee Ensign
Sympathizing With Some Internally Displaced
Persons At Damare IDP Camp in Fufore LGS
of Adamawa On Sunday (2/11/14)
By Levinus Nwabughiogu
FIVE days after Boko Haram terrorists seized
Mubi, the second largest town in Adamawa,
the insurgents are still holding on to the town
even as about 3,000 residents who managed
to escape have joined other internally
displaced persons at an NYSC camp in Yola.
Some of the survivors of the invasion have
also recounted their ordeals.
Most of them who ran for safety were
students of the Federal Polytechnic, Mubi.
Explaining her ordeal to Vanguard in Yola,
weekend, one of the students, Gift Ugo, a
Mass Communications undergraduate of the
Polytechnic from Abia State who said she
spent four days in the bush where she hid
from the prowling eyes of the insurgents said
it was a miracle that she escaped alive.
She said: “I am based in Kaduna but
schooling in Federal Polytechnic, Mubi,
Adamawa. I am studying Mass
Communication. Actually, the incident
happened on Wednesday morning although
we never knew it would be that serious as the
jets were dropping bombs. We had thought it
was the usual incident that would just pass
by but before we realized it, sounds of
gunshots were everywhere. About 150
students ran to Cameroon border and were
accommodated by the Cameroonian soldiers
but we decided to stay back in the hostel to
see how safe it would be until they called us
that an HND 1 Accounting student had been
killed. We were told that the crisis spread
into the school premises as the university
had been burnt down while the next target
would be the Polytechnic.
“We had to run for our lives. We tried to get
to where we could get a vehicle because the
roads had been taken over by the insurgents.
We saw them with our eyes. They have
blocked all the access roads leading to the
town, so nobody could leave or enter the
town. The moment you come into the town,
you are sure you are going to die and if you
were inside the city, you had to run for your
life because nowhere is safe inside Mubi
right now. We have not been eating anything.
We were just taking water with thorns piecing
through our legs. Walking in the bush for four
days has not been easy for us.”
Another student, Queen Samuel, an indigene
of Benue State, studying Purchasing and
Supply, also shared her experience. She said,
“we have been running, we have lost almost
everything. We trekked all the way from Mubi
to Hong and got a cab that took us here. The
situation in Mubi was very, very terrible.
Immediately we left, we learned that the
insurgents had burnt our hostel. There were
gun shots and bomb blasts everywhere. We
saw the Boko Haram people from the bush
where we were hiding. Two of them were on
a motor bike and some were riding in Keke
Napep (tricycle) armed with guns, so we hid.
It was by the grace of God that they didn’t
see us. We spent three days in the bush.
There was no security there at all in the
town.
Debora Fandum and Samuel Kasinda, both
from Mubi whom Vanguard met at Damare
Junction, a suburb of Yola said that though
they escaped, they were still confused over
where to go or what next to do.
Meanwhile, the number of Internally
Displaced Persons, IDPs, who were mainly
victims of Boko Haram insurgency in Yola,
Adamawa State, has hit 7662, Vanguard can
authoritatively report. The figure, however,
excludes 2633 new persons that were
admitted into the permanent orientation camp
of the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, at
Damare, Yola, which is being used as camp
for the IDPs.
Most of the IDPs came from Mubi, which was
invaded by the insurgents last Wednesday.
Michika in Adamawa State, Yobe and Borno
states, largely known to be the hotbeds of the
terrorists. Consequently, the sudden increase
in the number of people has thrown up many
challenges for the camp officials. For
instance, the camp is now contending with
insufficient mattresses, mats and toilets, just
as the security around the camp is giving the
camp officials some concern.
Investigations revealed that most of IDPs
have taken to open defecation which officials
said was detrimental to the health of the
people. Details of the number indicated that
3472 were males, while 4190 were females.
Children below the ages of five constituted
782 of the number. Similarly, pregnant
women were 76, while the number of children
between the ages of 0-1 year was put at
175. The camp cooked an average of 12
bags of rice and beans on daily basis to feed
the inmates.
Confirming the number of the IDPs to
Vanguard, the Commandant of the Camp, Mr.
Ibrahim Hamidu, who was incidentally a Red
Cross official from Gere Local Government of
the State, said the camp was fully occupied.
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