Over the years, the activities of daredevil Boko Haram
terrorists have continued to raise concern across the world as unsuspecting
members of the public, particularly northerners, continue to lose their lives
and valuables to the menace.
It had seemed a temporary problem to vanish soon, but many
years down the line, Nigeria is still battling the security crisis.
According to reports, nearly one million homes and 5,000
classrooms have been razed in the protracted onslaughts as the terrorists
continue to kill citizens and destroy both private and public facilities.
While the terrorists are in top gear, killing and destroying
lives and properties, they also actively recruit young men as foot soldiers to
continue infiltrating the nooks and crannies of various cities to perpetrate
the bloodbaths.
Reports indicated that since 2009, more than 8,000 girls and
boys have been recruited and used as child soldiers in different roles,
including suicide bombing by insurgents.
While some of the youths willingly joined the insurgents due
to poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, and weak family structures, many others
were forcefully conscripted into the group.
The insurgents usually leverage threats of all forms to
force the unwilling youths into their demonic activities.
This was the beginning of the ugly story of Bashiru Ibrahim,
a former resident of Madalla in Niger State and his family members.
According to a family member who narrated Bashiru’s ordeal on the condition of anonymity over fear of attacks, an elderly
friend he (Bshiru) considered his boss was a member of the deadly group unknown
to him.
The true identity of Bashiru’s boss was uncovered following
the bomb blast that rocked the St. Theresa Catholic Church Madalla on Christmas
Day in 2011. The incident had left at least 44 people dead and several others
injured.
She said, “After the Madalla bombing, my brother was
abducted by Boko Haram to undergo initiation into the sect to prepare him for
the task of attacking people.
“Bashiru and other young men were captured and locked in a
dark room. But through the grace of God, weeks after their abduction, the
Nigerian Army busted the hideout and dislodged them and that was how he escaped
that day.
“A few weeks after he escaped, the terrorists traced him to
his house, but luckily for him, that night, he was not at home. They ransacked
and broke every valuable item in the home, looking for Bashiru, but they could
not find him.
“No one could tell his whereabouts, we even thought he was
already dead. But his phone later started ringing and we were talking to him.
He said those terrorists were still threatening his life”.
According to the family source, Bashiru’s father, who
resided in Niger State, and his wife, Bashiru’s mother, who lived in their
hometown Benin, the Edo State capital, were attacked by the terrorists who
threatened to kill the entire family if he failed to provide his son.
She said, “By God’s grace, Bashiru was able to depart the
country, leaving us with threats from Boko Haram.
“Although he was already out of the country, my family was
as good as left in the open as his boss who has ties to the insurgents knew
some basic details about us”.
However, years after Bashiru left the shores of the country,
news of his father, stepmother and step-mother’s sister’s murder reached him.
The terrorists had kept to their word.
According to sources, the terrorists stormed Mr Mohammed
Ibrahim’s (Bashiru’s father) home at night and murdered him, his step-mother
who was heavily pregnant and her sister, a caregiver, over their inability to
provide their son.
Similarly, in November 2022, Bashiru’s mother, Mrs. Maria
Ibrahim, was traced to Benin City, where the terrorists murdered her.
Bashiru’s sister told our correspondent that her embattled
brother may never return to the country again.
She lamented that despite the killing of several family
members, the insurgents have continued to send threats to Bashiru’s remaining
siblings, who are scattered across the country.
Efforts to reach the Director of Army Public
Relations, Brigadier General Onyema Nwachukwu, proved abortive as he did not
take calls.
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