- The women in Borno state women accused the military of molesting and not treating them well
- The aggrieved women want President Muhammadu Buhari to act on the issue
- The military denies the allegation of ill-treatment on the women and the detained suspected Boko Haram members
At least 1300 displaced Borno women have reportedly wrote a letter to Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari, accused the military of wrongly arresting their husbands and children as Boko Haram suspects, Premium Times is reporting.
The aggrieved women also allege that they have been r*ped and barter s*x for food in the internally displaced persons’ camps.
“We were not allowed to leave the camp (managed by soldiers) and not given enough food but instead asked to pay for extra food… when we didn’t have anything left, they asked for s*x; young women were to have s*x with the Civilian-Joint Task Force (CJTF) members and soldiers to be able to feed their children,” they allegedly wrote in the letter.
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But the report quoted Onyema Nwachukwu, the spokesman of the military at the theater command headquarters of the Operation Lafiya Dole, as describing the allegations as unfounded, misplaced and probably calculated to dampen the morale of soldiers on the frontline.
“We don’t keep peoples relatives in custody; those that we have in custody are terrorism or insurgency suspects.
“And if anyone is not culpable after our investigation, they are released. But those who have been found to have either actively or passively participated in terrorism activities by bearing arms or providing other forms of supports to aid terrorism and insurgency are those in custody and would be prosecuted,” he added.
The report said in the four-paged open letter dated March 1, written by a group of displaced women, mostly wives or mothers of arrested Boko Haram suspects under the Knifa Movement, the aggrieved said they wanted the federal government to release their husbands.
According to them, the military is holding 1,269 persons who are either their husbands or children, on the allegations that they were members of Boko Haram and that they were arrested between July and December 2015.
“Our story is a story of suffering: In 2015 and 2016, we were kept in the horrific conditions in Bama Hospital camp, which was at that time run by the military and CJTF. We were not allowed to leave the camp and were not given enough food but instead, asked to pay for extra food.
“First, we sold our jewelry. Then we sold our clothes. When we didn’t have anything left, they asked for s*x. Young women were to have s*x with the Civilian-JTF members and soldiers to be able to feed their children. R*pe by the Civilian-JTF and soldiers were rampant.
“We were starved and forced to give our bodies in exchange for food. We saw our children die and there was nothing we could do. Hundreds of people lost their lives in Bama Hospital camp - we in our group alone know 799 people who died. We were the silent witnesses of immense suffering.
“In the last months, many of us have gone out of the camps to farm and collect firewood to earn a living. But there has been several attacks by Boko Haram nearby. One of our members lost her husband who went out to collect firewood. He had been released from the Giwa barracks some months ago. We are scared to go out of the camp but we do need to eat.
“Most of us lived with Boko Haram for months and we know what they we are capable of. They killed our relatives, abducted our sons, r*ped our daughters. We consider ourselves lucky that we came out alive. Living under Boko Haram was hell.
“We want to offer our best cooperation to prosecute the real Boko Haram members. But no one has asked us for our statement on what happened in the past years. We are pleading with you to give all victims of this (these) conflicts the opportunity to testify before a court of law,” they said.
In his defence, Onyema Nwachukwu, said it was the justice ministry that should handle the issue of their alleged non-trial.
“Trial of suspects lies with the judiciary and I believe that they are handling it accordingly. We are all aware that the federal government had instituted some special courts to try the suspects. It is not our responsibility to try any of them.
“But if somebody is found wanting after our investigations, it is not our duty to pronounced him guilty or not guilty. But we tender our reports as the case may be to those that will be prosecuting them.
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“The public must understand that the onus is not on the complainant to determine whether their relatives are guilty or not guilty.
“It is the court that determines that. The dynamics of the counterinsurgency war is such that we have different kinds of terrorists, like I earlier said that are either active or passive supporters. Yes, you may not have an arm with somebody, but the person may be aiding terrorism, either by providing information to the terrorists as an informant, or may be supplying logistics to the terrorists in their hideouts, and all these the wives at home might not even know.
“We have arrested several persons who take logistics to terrorists as their means of trade; so they should not look at the issue on the face value and conclude that their husbands are innocent, or they don’t have anything to do with Boko Haram. We really don’t profile suspects as somebody’s husband or relative; all we know is a terrorist is a terrorist, and anyone found wanting would be prosecuted.
“The public must know that it was not Operation Lafiya Dole that initiated that suffering,” Colonel Nwachukwu said.
NAIJ.com earlier reported that in compliance with President Muhammadu Buhari’s directives, service chiefs recently relocated to the northeast to take charge of the lingering Boko Haram insurgency in the region.
According to Leadership, the chief of defence staff, Gen Abayomi Gabriel Olanisakin; chief of army staff, Lt-Gen Tukur Yusuf Burutai; chief of air staff, Air Marshal Sadiq Abubakar; and chief of naval staff, Vice Admiral Ibok Ette Ibas along with the director general of the State Security Services, Lawan Daura, converged in Maiduguri, Borno state on Thursday, March 1.
Boko Haram Kidnappings: Dapchi Protests Abduction of Their Daughters by Boko Haram - on NAIJ.com TV
Source: Naija.ng