No abduction of any woman near Chibok —Locals

LOCALS at Garkin Fulani, near Chibok town, Borno State, have rebuffed reports in some sections of the media that Boko Haram insurgents abducted 20 Fulani women, saying the report was untrue and misleading.

A resident of the council, Mallam Wadai Bulama, told the Nigerian Tribune on phone that “we did not hear of any abduction.”

He said there was no way such a thing could happen around Chibok that the locals would not hear of it, adding that security operatives were in a better position to know. 

“For us in Chibok, we did not hear of another abduction,” he said.

Also speaking, Mallam Abana Ndirmbita said there was no such report as far as he was concerned.

He asked the Nigerian Tribune to contact the military on the authenticity or otherwise of the story.

A top security source in Maiduguri also said there was no such information available to the military.

“We have not received such information yet, but I will let you know when we have information,” he said.

Attempts to get the spokesman of the 7 Division, Nigerian Army, Colonel Muhammadu Dole, as well as the state Police Public Relations Officer, Gideon Jibril, failed.

Some sections of the media had reported on Tuesday that Boko Haram gunmen kidnapped 20 women from a nomadic settlement near Chibok.

One Alhaji Tar, a member of the vigilante groups set up to resist Boko Haram’s attacks, said the men arrived at noon on Thursday last week in the Garkin Fulani settlement and forced the women to enter their vehicles at gunpoint.

Meanwhile, the chairman, caretaker committee of Dikwa Local Government Area of Borno State,  Alhaji Ali Modu Gana, has expressed disappointment with a media report credited to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Hausa Service programme on Tuesday, which stated that “some Boko Haram terrorists invaded Dikwa on Monday and set ablaze the council’s secretariat after chasing away security operatives deployed in the area.”

Gana said “there was no Boko Haram attack in Dikwa as carelessly and unprofessionally reported by the BBC, describing the report as baseless, unfounded, untrue and aimed at misleading the public and giving terrorists cheap publicity.”

The council boss, who disclosed this in Maiduguri, the state capital, also denied the BBC source which it claimed to have spoken with him in an interview.

The source was quoted to have said “the military and other security operatives ran away when the terrorists invaded Dikwa before they set ablaze the council’s secretariat.”

Maintaining that no place was attacked as widely reported, Gana said for BBC, one of the respected international media, to have concocted a story that did not exist or happen was unfortunate, adding that  “only God knows how many members of the public and the audience would have been misled, misinformed, misguided and faced with media imperialism.”

He said what actually took place in Dikwa on Monday was an explosion caused by faulty solar street light batteries, stressing that the report by BBC, without a reporter, correspondent or representative in Borno State for the past few years, was not true.