Four days after Borno witnessed one of the most horrific floods in decades, some Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) officers have begun molesting and raping female victims in the reopened Bakassi internally displaced persons camp....READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE ▶▶
Alau Dam, located in Maiduguri, the state capital, was built for agricultural irrigation and household uses in 1986 and first collapsed in 1994. It collapsed only for the second time on Tuesday, consequently flooding the city, resulting in massive displacement of people, some of whom have now been raped.
According to Bintu Mustapha, one of the victims housed at the Bakassi camp, who was being interviewed live on television by Sani Adamu, an AriseTV
correspondent, some members of the CJTF, a local security outfit complementing military onslaughtsagainst terrorists in the northeast region, were diverting relief materials and favouring their friends and girlfriends in the scheme of things.
The journalist interviewed Mustpaha and Isa Alli in Hausa, but he translated it to English.
“One girl was raped yesterday by a civilian JTF member in this particular camp. In the process of dispersing crowds collecting food, some JTF members flogged a lady on her neck and she is receiving medical care at the hospital now,” he said.
“The food they are cooking for us here is not enough at all. Most of the food is being taken away by civilian JTF officers, who are guarding the camp; they are taking the food to their friends and girlfriends without minding the real victims.”
The disaster has created a humanitarian crisis, forcing the government to reopen some of the IDP camps it had already shut down after terrorism victims were returned to their various communities.
Alli, a male flood victim who spoke with the journalist, said that the camp lacked enough accommodation. He urged the government to provide more accommodation for them.
“My area has been flooded by water. Our immediate needs for now are food and accommodation. These are the only things we need for now,” Alli said.
The National Emergency Management Agency and other rescue bodies have been coordinating relief operations in the city alongside civilian and military security agencies to ensure life returns to normalcy.
Meanwhile, the federal government has released N3 billion to the state government to assist in the provision of basic supplies to the people affected by the flood. This is in addition to the funds already deployed by the state to cater to the needs of the victims.
As the victims, including children, grapple with the threat of disease outbreak, well-off citizens and organisations have been urged to complement official effort to salvage the situation.
Efforts to contact the Nahum Kenneth Daso, the Borno Police Command spokesperson, for comments were unsuccessful at press time. The command had no phone number on its X handle and the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) has failed to update
the contacts of command public relations officers on its website.
Josephine Adeh, the Abuja Police Command spokesperson, promised to help get Daso’s phone number, but she had not done so at press time.
