Residents of Borno State and travellers coming into Maiduguri, the Borno capital, have described as inhumane the action of the Nigerian military in reportedly closing the Maiduguri-Damaturu road at 4:00pm, which they said has caused untold hardship and exposed travellers to the danger of sleeping in the buses as well as being attacked by Boko Haram terrorists.
Speaking with DAILY POST, Maiduguri residents stated that in as much as the military is predicating the gate closure on protecting the state from the influx of the Boko Haram terrorists, the usage time is too short and needs to be upgraded so as to allow travellers who are coming from Abuja and other far-flung locations the opportunity to ease the stress of 12-hour journeys.
Ahmadu Ibrahim, a resident of Gomari ward in Maiduguri, told our correspondent that he had experienced a horrible night stay at the Auno gate and saw women and children suffering because soldiers close the gate would not allow people pass through to their destinations after enduring a long journey.
“My problem is that they segregate. They allow commissioners from Yobe and other top government officials to go through, but the masses are not allowed to go in after 4:00pm. I ask a soldier during my experience as to whether the masses are the cause of the insecurity in the Northeast that every poor person has to bear the brunt while the rich and those who could afford to pay N1000 had it easy,” Ahmed said.
According to him, the soldier just smiled and told him to go and sit down until morning, as they have not allow anybody passage except those who have been cleared from the 7 division garrison.
“I was very angry with the soldier who remained calm but there was nothing I could do being a civilian and among the unfortunate ones. That night, we had issues of snake bite and scorpion stings. We begged them to carry the people who were bitten to hospital but it all fell on deaf ears. To cut the long story short, the woman who was bitten died in the morning when the soldiers finally open the gate around 7:30 am for people to pass,” he added.
Another resident, Shuibu Abubakar maintained that Auno gate around 4pm is very inhumane and very disgusting by the security operatives, adding that as a concern citizen, he is calling on the Borno state governor, Professor Zullum, to step in and save poor citizens who are being subjected to inhumane treatment by the closure of the gate at Auno by 4:00pm.
“I don’t believe if the governor travels to Damaturu and come to Auno after 4:00pm the soldiers would dare close the gate on him. Their actions against the poor who they claimed also to be protecting is rather barbaric. I am calling the attention of the governor and military authorities over this injustice and barbaric attitude by the security operatives along Maiduguri Damaturu road.
“Auno, where they erected pillars and put gate is known to be Boko Haram passage area and often where they draw battle-line with the insurgents whenever they come to attack, civilians and especially the masses have been killed several times during an exchange of fire fight between soldiers and Boko Haram. I don’t know why they are doing this to the masses, but Allah will bring justice to the masses,” Abubakar said.
He maintained that it was the height of insensitivity for the soldiers to close the gate at exactly 4:00pm and allow travellers to sleep in front of the gate risking their lives until 7 O’Clock the next morning before the gate is opened to road users.
“Yesterday on my way coming from Gombe, around 4:00 pm, the gate has been closed and it can only be opened to big men or if you have a side-talk with the security men.
“They said they’ll not open the gate, if we like we should trek, I joined one crew trekking all the way from Auno to Jumtilo with some students, women and small kids. Imagine the long distance. We reached Jimtilo gate at 7:30 PM and another challenge is that the security operatives refused to open the gate for us to just pass after trekking for about 2 hours.
“We begged them, they beat up one guy and started shooting guns freaking people. They said we should go back to Auno after all the stressful trekking.
“Around 9:30pm, with all those women and children we have to trek back to Auno to sleep over. Walking in that bush with no single security men (Allah is great) we reached Auno around 11:45pm.
“I want to use this medium to draw the attention of the state Governor Professor Zullum. Our governor, since you’re in charge of the state security system. Please if this is happening because of security issues, I suggest the road should be shutdown instead of all the harassment and intimidation. We’re citizens of this nation and we don’t deserve to be treated that way.
“After about 10 years of check points, raising hands before passing check points, removing himar before passing, I think we had enough. What we’re demanding is just free movement like other states,” he pleaded.
In an attempt to get official reaction to allegations against the soldiers stationed at the Auno gate, DAILY POST put a call to Col. Sagir Musa, the Director of Army Public Relations but there was no reply.
Also, a text massage was sent to his phone by our correspondent, but he was yet to revert as at the time of this report.
