WOMAN HELD HOSTAGE FOR 9 YEARS BY LOVER REGAINS FREEDOM

■ Bears 4 children in captivity
A woman from Delta State (names withheld by us) who was kid¬napped nine years ago by her lov¬er has miraculously regained her freedom.

The woman who lived in the Ikotun Egbe area of Lagos stepped out of her lover’s house with her four children for the first time in nine years. The woman said to be a grad¬uate and speaks fluent English narrated her ordeal to the people in the area who gathered around to have a glim of her.
Sunday Sun was told by eye witnesses that the woman’s lover who hails from Ekiti State loved her so much and wanted to marry her but because her family was against the relationship, he decided to kidnap her for keeps, to keep her away from her parents. He later took her to a wooden house he built for her in Okerube area of Abaranje, Ikotun, Lagos.

Neighbours said the woman claimed not to have known where she was kept because her lover would go to the market to get food for her and her children very early in the morn¬ing and threatened that she would die if she stepped out of the house. When he leaves, he makes sure he locks the house so she had no way of coming out. Sunday Sun was told that it was in the wooden house that the woman gave birth to her four children while the hus¬band acted as the midwife.
Three weeks ago, her lover fell ill and could not as usual go out to fetch food all through the period of his illness. Extreme¬ly starved and weak, the woman forced him out on Friday, October 24, 2014 to get what they would eat and drink before they all die of hunger and thirst. Luckily for her and the children, the man forgot to lock the house.It was at this point that the woman decided to urinate and was shocked to see what had hap-pened around her.

When the people in the area discovered her, they came out in their numbers and started questioning her as they thought she was mad. She and her children were so much emaciated but from her responses and body language, they realized she and the children were okay and mentally sound. While in forced confinement, she had taught the children their lessons such that they spoke very well when with their mother in the crowd. She remembered her sister’s con¬tact and one of the sympathizers quickly put a call through to her. In about 30 minutes, the sister arrived at the scene and took her and the children away.
Eyewitnesses reported that her husband had not returned from the market when she was taken away. They said she was so upset at the forceful rescue that she was scream¬ing at the top of her voice: “My husband oh, my husband!” thereby getting her sister an¬gry and shouting back at her; “which yeye husband you dey call?”

A lady who lived in the neighbourhood said the man built the wooden house near her house. Whenever people go near the place to see if anyone lives there, he would use a catapult and stone to hit them and chase them away. She said: “Anyone who tries to get close, this man will use catapult and stone to shoot them so people had to let him be thinking he was mentally unbal¬anced. We didn’t even know he was living there with five people. When the man got back, he found the house empty. He be¬gan to shout, ‘’I hate human beings, that is why I isolated myself and my family from them.’’Can you imagine”?

It is uncertain if the man is himself a grad¬uate or if he is mentally stable but one thing is certain: He was not ready to set his “wife” free and was very upset when she left.
Source: Sun

REVEALED: Nigeria’s secret deal with Boko Haram

Chad: Shekau appointed negotiators in writing
Details of Nigeria’s peace deal with Boko Haram were revealed on Friday by the government of Chad which also sensationally disclosed that the sect’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, wrote it confirming his emissaries to the recent peace meeting held in Chad.

Moussa Mahamat Dago, the number two official in Chad’s foreign ministry confirmed all these to the media on Friday. The official stressed that Chad believed Nigeria’s secret deal with Boko Haram Islamists to free more than 200 kidnapped Chibok schoolgirls would go ahead despite the breakdown of a truce and revealed that the key to the agreement was a prisoner swap.

The accord mediated by Chad for the release of the girls seized from Chibok in Borno State in April has been called into question since it was announced by the Nigerian military last week. A ceasefire supposed to be part of the agreement has been broken, and a further 25 girls were abducted this week.
Dago, according to Reuters, said it appeared some Boko Haram factions were refusing to abide by the deal, brokered by the Chadian foreign minister with two representatives of the Islamist group and two Nigerian negotiators at meetings in Chad on September 14 and 30.
“Quite possibly those who are fighting are dissidents that even they (Boko Haram) aren’t able to control. So far, there is no reason for others to doubt this agreement,” Dago told Reuters late on Thursday in the Chadian capital, N’Djamena.

“What I can say is that those that negotiated with the Nigerian government did so in good faith ... We are waiting for the next phase which is the release of the girls,” he added.
Dago said the two sides agreed verbally to a series of points summarised in a document he had seen, including the release of the schoolgirls and of jailed Boko Haram fighters.

“The starting condition of Boko Haram was the liberation of some of their members ... That is the compensation,” Dago said, adding that the specifics on the names and number of Boko Haram fighters still to be released had not yet been agreed.
Dago said he still expected the girls to be freed, without giving a time frame. The Boko Haram negotiators were no longer in Chad although they had agreed to return in October after freeing the girls to hold more talks, he added.

The first stage of the agreement made was the release of a group of 27 Chinese and Cameroonian hostages by Boko Haram two weeks ago in northern Cameroon, Dago said.
“We remain optimistic. The two sides agreed to find a negotiated solution and to show their good faith, they already freed some hostages and announced a ceasefire,” he said.
Dago admitted it would be embarrassing for Chadian President, Idriss Deby’s government, which has taken a leading role in security and diplomacy in Africa’s turbulent Sahel region in recent years if the girls were not freed.

“It would be very disappointing. We are engaged in this now. If this negotiation doesn’t succeed, that would be damaging for Chad’s facilitating role,” he said.
Boko Haram has not yet commented on the ceasefire. Its fighters have killed thousands of people in raids mostly in the northeast but have also claimed sporadic bomb attacks in the Federal Capital Territory.
Dago said he was confident that the negotiators had the authority to speak on behalf of Boko Haram’s mercurial and reclusive leader, Abubakar Shekau, whom Nigeria’s military has more than once claimed to have killed.

“They are envoys who answer to their leader, Shekau, who himself confirmed that these emissaries spoke on his behalf. That was confirmed in writing to the Chadian government,” he said, confirming press reports that the negotiators were named Sheikh Goni Hassane and Sheikh Boukar Umarou.
Chad does not know where the abducted Chibok girls are being held, but Dago said it was likely they were outside of Chad and spread out over a wide area.
The Chinese hostages freed earlier under the agreement were found scattered across northern Cameroon, he said.

“They (Boko Haram) gave us guarantees that the girls are well but we don’t know physically where they are,” he said.
“But they have certainly dispersed them like the Chinese hostages, who were spread out over a large area,” he added.

The two parties planned to meet again for a third time in Chad after the release of the schoolgirls to draft a roadmap to tackle more fundamental issues, Dago said.
“For the next stage of negotiations, the girls need to be freed. We cannot go into details as long as this question remains and it is a requirement of Chad that the girls are released before we start the next stage of talks,” he said.
Source: Tribune

Court remands pastor for snatching cars at gunpoint

A district pastor of a church in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, has been remanded by a Lagos Magistrate’s Court sitting in Ikeja.
The 37-year-old pastor, Adebambo Adetunji, was alleged to be one of the gang members, who robbed motorists at the Ojota Bus stop, between April and July, 2014.

PUNCH Metro learnt that Adetunji and other suspects, who were still on the run, were notorious for snatching cars and robbing victims of their valuables at gun point.
Our correspondent gathered that a Toyota Camry and a Mercedes Benz ML320 with number plates MUS 413 BH and LND 623 BF respectively, were diverted by the suspected robbers, who were said to have also used cutlasses in their operations.

While the Mercedes Benz car was said to be the property of one Boniface Joseph, who was robbed around 10.30pm on April 30, at the bus stop, one Oluwatoyin Badmus, was reportedly robbed of her   Toyota Camry around 6pm on July 6 at the same spot.
The police said Joseph also lost two phones and an IPad to the robbers, adding that valuables lost by the duo were worth N4.5m.

It was learnt that Adetunji was arrested by men of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad led by SP Abba Kyari after Badmus had reported the attack to the police.
The prosecutor, Inspector Nurudeen Thomas, on Thursday, brought the suspect, who hails from Osun State, before the Magistrate, Mrs. M.O. Oshodi, on three counts bordering on armed robbery.
Oshodi, who was holding brief for Mrs. Dan Oni, refused to listen to the defendant’s plea and ordered that he be remanded pending the time the Directorate of Public Prosecutions would issue legal advice on the matter.

The charges read in part, “That you, Adebambo Adetunji and others now at large, on April 30, 2014 at about 10.30pm at Ojota Bus stop in the Lagos Magisterial District while armed with guns and cutlasses did rob one Mercedes Benz Jeep ML320 with registration number LND 623 BF valued N1, 850,000, IPad valued N80,000, Blackberry Bold 5 valued N30,000, Nokia E5 valued N26,000 and cash sum of N250,000 total value N2,236,000 property of one Boniface Joseph.
“That you, and others now at large on July 6, 2014 at about 5.30pm at Ojota Bus stop in the aforementioned magisterial district did conspire among yourselves to commit felony to wit; armed robbery.

“That you and others now at large on the same date, time and place in the aforesaid magisterial district while armed with guns and cutlasses did rob one Toyota Camry 2008 model with registration number MUS 413 BH valued N2.3m property of one Oluwatoyin Badmus.”
It was said that the offences contravened Section 5 (b) and were punishable under Section 1 (2) (a) (b) of the Robbery and Firearms Act, Cap. 398, Vol. XXII, Law of the Federation of Nigeria, 1990 and 2003 as amended.
Adetunji, who was clad in Ankara, burst into tears on hearing the charges.
The case was adjourned till December 3, 2014.
Source:Punch

Why I abandoned my kids for eight years – Father

Mr Segun Adepegba, the father of the three children abandoned in a boarding school for eight years in Abule-Iroko in Ado-Odo Ota Local Government Area of Ogun State, Mr Segun Adepegba, on Wednesday, reached out to PUNCH Metro.

Adepegba said hardship pushed him to the wall and that was why he could not take care of his children. He, however, promised to visit them before the end of the week.
The father of three, in a telephone interview with PUNCH Metro, recounted his ordeal, saying, “life has been very tough for me.” He said he left the children because he was jobless and had no house to accommodate them.

PUNCH Metro had on Tuesday reported that Adepegba’s children-Seun, 14, Titilola 13, and Seyi, 10, had been abandoned since 2007 at Solid Rock Model College in Abule-Iroko. The children, who had been eager to meet their parents, said the absence of their parents was affecting their studies.
For many years, the school authorities had been trying to reach Adepegba to no avail. The proprietor of the school, Mr Samuel Ayegbusi, had told our correspondent that any time he called Adepegba and he realised it was him, he would switch off his phones.
Adepegba, however, bowed to pressure on Tuesday after reading the report by PUNCH Metro. He told our correspondent that abandoning his children was inevitable, promising that he would visit the school.

While narrating his ordeal to our correspondent, he said, “In 2007, my wife and I had a misunderstanding and she told me she was leaving me. I was frustrated and the children were little. Seyi, the youngest was just two years while Titilola was just five.
“There was no way I could give them motherly care. I had no job. As a man, I needed someone to help me take care of them and that was why my sister suggested that we enrol them in a boarding school.”

Adepegba told PUNCH Metro that when the children’s bills kept accumulating and he had no means of paying, he was afraid that if he came to the school, the proprietor would get him arrested.
He said, “I feared that if I suddenly appeared at the school, the proprietor would get the police to arrest me. I really appreciate the proprietor of Solid Rock Model College, for coming to my rescue and accepting the responsibility to help me take care of   my children. The truth is this: I was pushed to the wall. I didn’t want my children to be beggars on the street.

“All these years, I have been jobless. I had no house to live in. I was putting up with someone. I just rented a one-room apartment and just got a job. I am not a wicked father. I really miss them but I am gradually overcoming the challenges I have been facing. I did not abandon them in that sense. I can assure you that before the week runs out, I will visit them.”
Asked whether his wife had called him about how the children were doing, Adepegba said since she left him in 2007, he had not heard from her.

“The last time we saw each other was probably in 2007 when she left me. I have been trying to reach her but my search has not been fruitful. I heard that she is somewhere in the northern part of the country,” he said.
However, the school proprietor told PUNCH Metro that the school authorities had no intention of getting Adepegba arrested for his debt .He said he reported the matter to the Ogun State Police Command because he was fed up.

He said, “I have nothing against Mr Adepegba and I understand his plight. My grievance was that he kept on rejecting my calls and abandoned his children. How could he as a father leave his children for this long? It is not a good thing.”
Our correspondent learnt that the news of their father’s return had lifted the heart of the children. The children were all smiles when they were told that their father had promised to return before the end of the week.

Speaking with PUNCH Metro on the telephone on Wednesday, Seun, the eldest of the trio said, “I am very happy that daddy has promised to come back. It means I would not have to spend my holidays in the school again.”

Titilola added, “I hope this is not another promise that will fail. I am really looking forward to seeing him because it will make me very happy.”
Source: Punch

Why we killed Newswatch editor – Robbery suspects

The Lagos State Police Command on Tuesday paraded a robbery gang, which confessed to have killed a former Assistant Editor of the Newswatch newspapers, Mr. Toyin Obadina, in one of their operations.

PUNCH Metro had reported on Monday, February 3, that some gunmen in two Sports Utility Vehicles shot Obadina in the Ikorodu area of Lagos around 1am. It had also been reported that 50-year-old Obadina, who hailed from Ogun State, died the following day during a surgery to remove the bullets lodged in his stomach.

According to the police, four suspects: Adeshina Festus, Sunday Samuel, Ibrahim Adeokin and Babatunde Makinde were arrested while two others-identified simply as Oke and Benjamin- were killed by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad during another operation.
Our correspondent learnt that the gang was arrested in its hideout in Ajelogo, Mile 12 on Thursday, October 17 following a tip-off.

During interrogation, the suspects confessed to the police that they were responsible for the killing of the owner of a Toyota Salon car with number plate, AKD 701 CE. The gang confessed to have snatched the vehicle at the Lucky Fibre area, Ikorodu on Friday, February 1, and abandoned the corpse of the owner at about 1am.

The police thereafter discovered that the victim was Obadina, the Newswatch Assistant Editor.
Speaking with PUNCH Metro on Tuesday, the suspects said Oke, their gang leader, had shot the editor because he (Obadina) ‘struggled’ with the gang over his laptop.
Festus, 21, said, “On that night, I drove one of the two SUVs. When the man was approaching, we blocked his vehicle at a bad portion of the Ikorodu Road. After he was forced to stop, our ring leaders in the other vehicle, Oke and Benjamin, went to meet him.
“I and the others stayed back. As this went on, we noticed that an argument ensued between them, and Oke shot him. The editor probably felt only the two robbers were at the spot, and he was trying to defend himself.

“I joined the gang for operations around January. We have gone on about three operations. We operated on Itamaga Road, Ikorodu Road and Ishaga. Our robbery was only on the highway. I was working as a commercial driver before I joined the gang. It was Oke who brought the two guns that we were using. We usually started from around 8pm till midnight. We were six in the gang.”
Samuel, 22, from Udu, Delta State, added that Oke wanted Obadina to part with his laptop, and a struggle had ensued.

He said, “Oke our leader had carried the journalist’s laptop, and the man dragged the property with him. In annoyance, he shot him in the chest. I was part of the gang. I was inside the second vehicle. Oke and Benjamin were inside the Toyota Sienna that blocked the journalist’s vehicle.
“After shooting the journalist, we immediately drove away. We were all furious with Oke for shooting him. But we were afraid so that he would not shoot us too because he was a violent man. He had shot Babatunde before. After two weeks, we went again to Mile 12 for another robbery, and it was in the process that the police caught us, and they killed Oke during that operation.”
Our correspondent learnt that two other robbery suspects linked to the gang, identified simply as Olasheu and Omo Alhaja, were still at large.

The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Cornelius Aderanti, said despite the fact that investigations into the murder took months, the police were able to eventually apprehend the suspects.
He said, “We were able to recover two locally-made single-barrelled guns, 12 rounds of live cartridges, one Nissan Xtera and one Toyota Yaris car from the gang. The suspects were apprehended by a team of crack detectives led by Operations Commander, SARS, Abba Kyari.

“Like in all climes, investigations can drag on for years, but eventually the suspects will be hunted down. Therefore, the police have been able to round up the people behind this unfortunate incident. They will be made to pay for their deeds.”
Source:Punch

EBOLA SURVIVOR TELLS HOW VIRUS RUINED HER LIFE

One of the 12 people treated for Ebola virus disease in Nigeria says surviving the disease has left her traumatised and stigmatised.
Chinyere Enemuo, a geology graduate from University of Jos, is the sister of the Port Harcourt doctor who died, after contracting Ebola from treating an ECOWAS diplomat who fled surveillance in Lagos.

She got her life back after surviving the virus, but she lost job opportunities, a wedding and her peace of mind, she told an audience of experts as World Health Organisation declared Nigeria free of the virus that killed her elder brother.

She said her family members have lost jobs and faced steep stigma because their name had been associated with the virus.
She’d been planning her wedding for September 27, but plans were “disorganised” after she was confirmed positive.”

“The whole incident is not a pleasant one, it is traumatic,” she said moments after World Health Organisation declared Nigeria free of the virus.
Speaking on behalf of 11 other survivors, Chinyere said rumours, both true and untrue, “affected me negatively, both me as an individual, members of my family, the family name as a whole, because once you bear that name, everyone tends to be scared of you.”

“Some of my family members were expelled from work, some were suspended, my younger brother was given warning not to leave school to Port Harcourt at anytime or they will stop him from the school. It really affected our family.”
She told a gathering at the WHO declaration how any talk of Ebola shot down her wedding plans, for which refunds could not be guaranteed.

“All that we invested in the wedding plan was gone. We have to start all over again in another venue because I am very sure assuming the wedding held as planned, I am very sure nobody will attend just because of the kind of information that was passed on.”
“We must not allow stigmatisation of individuals, communities or countries to take root,” said Onyebuchi Chukwu in his final moments as health minister.

He symbolically had a handshake with Chinyere before putting one arm around her shoulders.
“The safest person in this audience to have a handshake with is Chinyere,” he explained.
“I may catch another strain. But even if I have the strain she suffered from, she will not get it.”
Source: Daily Trust

Woman abducts stepdaughter, buries her in soakaway

The police in Lagos have arrested a woman, Aminat Akanni, for allegedly abducting two of her stepchildren and murdering one of them because she claimed her husband refused to provide Sallah clothes for her own son.
PUNCH Metro learnt that the suspect killed one of the kids, Nofisat, by pushing her into a soakaway.
PUNCH Metro learnt that Aminat was arrested by the police at CMS Bus Stop, Lagos Island, on October 9.

Our correspondent learnt that prior to the arrest, seven-year-old Lateef and four-year-old Nofisat had been declared missing on Friday, October 3- a day to the Sallah celebration.
It was learnt that the father of the missing children, Moshood Mubo, who is also the suspect’s husband, had raised the alarm and reported the case to the Adeniji Adele Police Division on Friday, October 3.

However, after the suspect’s arrest, she confessed to have abducted the two kids from Church Street, Lagos Island where they lived.
She further confessed to have also killed the younger, child, Nofisat, by pushing her into soakaway beside a mosque in the Orile area.
Our correspondent gathered that Lateef and Nofisat were pupils in Primary 1 and Nursery 2 classes respectively in a private school.
Speaking with PUNCH Metro on Sunday, Moshood who hails from Ilorin, Kwara State, said his second wife, who he rented an apartment for in the Orile area, abducted the kids claiming that she wanted to “punish him for not buying Sallah clothes for her own son.”

He said, “I married Aminat in 2010. In order to avoid a crisis at home, I rented an apartment for her at Mosalashi Street, Alakara in Orile. She has only one son for me. His name is Yusuf. She does not come to Church Street, Lagos Island where I live with my first wife.
“What happened was that on the evening of Friday, October 3, when I returned from work- just a day to the Sallah celebrations- I sent the two children to go buy biscuits in front of the street. That was around 7pm. We expected them till around 9pm. I was shocked. I quickly rushed to the Adeniji Adele Police Division, and reported the incident.

“Believe me, I and their mother, Funmilayo, could not sleep all through that night. We were walking around throughout the night from one police division to the other, repeating the same thing. The whole Sallah celebration was a sad one as I looked for my two children. Little did I know that it was my second wife who sneaked into our area to abduct them.”
Moshood, who spoke to our correspondent while fighting back tears, added that Aminat had called him the following day, and made a suspicious comment.

He said, “The following morning, around 11am, Aminat called me and heard me crying on the phone. I told her that we were looking for Lateef and Nofisat, she simply said, ‘All I know is that no one can kidnap my own son.’ I was shocked at her statement, but I never thought she was the one behind the whole trouble.
“It was six days later when the police arrested her that she then confessed that she committed the act because she claimed I was not taking care of her, and I had not bought sallah clothes for her son, which is not true. She had sneaked to our area, and asked the two kids to follow her to Orile. This is unimaginable for me.”

PUNCH Metro learnt that as the search for the two children continued, which took Mubo and his first wife to travel to Ilorin, Kwara State to consult their relatives and get ‘spiritual help’, a friend had called them on Thursday, October 9, that she saw Lateef with Akanni around the CMS Bus Stop, Lagos Island. The police were then invited who trailed her movement and arrested her.
The mother of the two children, Funmilayo, told PUNCH Metro that Aminat had bottled up grievances against her for a long time.

She said, “Aminat killed my daughter. She made us to have a sorrowful Sallah. We were running around police stations. She said she wanted to punish me and my husband because she was having issues with us. So, why did she not come after us, why after my two children?”
The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Kenneth Nwosu, confirmed the incident, adding that Aminat was now in police custody.

He said, “Aminat Akanni is the second wife of the complainant. Investigation revealed that the corpse of Nofisat was recovered by the Orile Division in a sudden and unnatural death.
“The suspect confessed to have drowned the child and dropped the corpse at Orile. The case has now been transferred to the Orile Division for further synchronisation and action.”
Source: Punch

24 Hours after ceasefire: Boko Haram kills 18 in Borno

Barely 24 hours after the Federal Government and Boko Haram brokered a ceasefire deal on the Islamist group’s terror campaign in the North-east, an attack, suspected to have been carried by the sect, yesterday, left eight dead.
The attack took place around the hilly communities of Dzur in Hawul Local Government Area of Borno State.

In an earlier development, suspected Boko Haram insurgents, Friday evening, killed 10 persons in an attack in Malamfatori, the headquarters of Abadam Local Government Area of Borno State, bringing the number of people killed in the two attacks at the weekend to 18.
Federal Government officials were, yesterday, unwilling to comment on the attacks amid the truce talks.

However, one of the officials, who spoke to Sunday Vanguard, said: ”Our attitude is simply wait and see.”
Meanwhile, sources said that the alleged killing of the leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, and the attendant effect on the operations of the group may have forced it to negotiate with government.
It was equally learnt that President Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election bid may have played a role in the latest efforts to resolve the Nigeria–Boko Haram conflict.
Sunday Vanguard learnt that government’s calculation was that the resolution of the Boko Haram insurgency would be viewed favourably by Nigerians to Jonathan ahead of his declaration for second time.

The release of the more than 200 students from Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, kidnapped by Boko Haram in April, more than 180 days ago, also featured prominently on the truce talks held in Saudi Arabia.
The eight persons killed in yesterday’s attack around the Borno hilly communities included motorists and passengers whose vehicles were reportedly ambushed by insurgents.

Ambush
Dzur is a mountainous community harbouring terrorist camps along the Biu- Garkida- Gombi- Yola road where the late Emir of Gwoza, Alhaji Idrissa Timta, and some other people were ambushed and killed by suspected Boko Haram gunmen early this year.
Just two weeks ago, some insurgents stormed Shaffa community, about 10 kilometres from Azare, the council headquarters, and killed over 20 people including a pastor of Living Faith Church, Eluid Gwamna Mshelizza, who was slaughtered on his way to his house after delivering a sermon at about 10pm in the community.

In that attack, no fewer than six churches were razed while several houses and shops all belonging to Christians were looted and destroyed.
A motorist, who narrowly escaped yesterday’s attack, Mallam Yakubu Ali Biu, told our correspondent that the assailants, numbering over 50, armed with rifles and rocket propelled launchers, barricaded the highway and opened fire on motorists and passengers from Biu to Yola, which led to the killing of eight persons while many others sustained gunshot injuries.
On how he escaped, he said, ” My brother, it is by the grace of God that I and some passengers survived. I was coming from Biu to Gombi when I sighted motorists running into the bush and in different directions. I began to hear sound of gunshots. I quickly made a U-turn back to Biu. A taxi driver who overtook me on the road around Tashan Alade was among the victims”.
A residents of neighbouring Shaffa community, Mr. Mwajim Anjili Balami, told our correspondent on phone in Maiduguri that the insurgents came through Kwokshar village and were trying to enter Shaffa.

“As I am talking to you now, residents have run away from Shaffa because of lack of security presence. Our local hunters and vigilante groups tried to resist the attack, but they were overwhelmed.”
The 10 people reportedly killed by gunmen in Malamfatori, Abadam local government area, on Friday, were said to have included a brother to a Director in the Ministry of Poverty Alleviation in Borno State.

Abadam is north and borders Niger and Chad Republic, about 270 kilometres from Maiduguri.
Sources told Sunday Vanguard that the insurgents, numbering over 100, were fleeing from Marge, Monguno and Dikwa axis towards the Lake Chad basin when they were confronted by vigilante youth, a situation which forced them to open fire on residents killing 10 and leaving over 30 others with gunshot injuries.
A resident who lost a brother said the incident took place at about 5pm on Friday.
Efforts to contact Borno State police Public Relations Officer, DSP Gideon Jubrin, were unsuccessful as his phone lines were not reachable, but a security source confirmed the attack.

Losses
Sunday Vanguard was informed, yesterday, that the death of Shekau, leader of Boko Haram, “forced its upper cadre to reach out to President Idris Deby Itno of Chad to help it enter into truce with the Nigerian authorities.”
Also, it was learnt that the pounding of the group’s bases in some parts of the North East, coupled with its losses on the field, played a role in the deal.
In fact, during negotiations, one of those who spoke for the insurgents was said to have explained that some of the terror acts attributed to Boko Haram were not its handiwork but that it appropriated and claimed them because it instilled fear in the people.

Sources also said the continued abduction of the Chibok girls had made it very impossible for President Jonathan to be seen making statements regarding his re-election.
“There was no way he could have come out to talk about his re-election when the girls were still in captivity”, a presidential source said.
“The President himself was more or less a hostage to the entire situation.
“Now that the release of the girls is imminent, the pace of activities regarding the President’s re-election would be revved”.

In a related development, the senator representing Borno Central, the hot-bed of Boko Haram attacks, Ahmed Zana, when contacted to react to the ceasefire agreement, yesterday, said he had no comment as he would watch unfolding events.
Another Borno senator, Ali Ndome, representing Borno North, said though he was not aware of such agreement or cease fire, what was important to him was the release of the abducted Chibok girls and in good health.
Source: Vanguard